Colombia Huila Finca Las Mandarinas Anaerobic Natural Caturra
This Caturra Microlot offers an adventurous cup! Processed with a long Anaerobic fermentation meant to highlight sweetness, it's further natural processed to allow all those wild flavors to shine. If you enjoy tart flavors and fruity complexity, this coffee is for you. The profile is wine heavy and features intensely sweet notes of raspberry and cranberry. The acidity is tangy and reminiscent of a nice balsamic vinegar. A rare treat that must be tasted to be believed!
Anaerobic fermentation is all the rage these days. When used with a light hand, it can accent sweetness and even provide a clean cup. Here we usually see a few hours to a day of Anaerobic fermentation. When used heavily, it pushes the sweetness of the coffee off the charts and begins to add winey and sometimes vinegary notes along with tartness and tangy acidity. This coffee has undergone an entire week of Anaerobic fermentation so you can be assured it falls squarely into the second category! Nonetheless, it should be noted that it still takes a careful hand to do this well and not push the coffee into the territory of an undrinkable coffee/vinegar hybrid. Luis Ramirez knows his stuff and has walked the line very carefully!
Now to be clear, we are well aware that this coffee isn’t for everyone! If you like bold, adventurous cups that challenge you or you simply enjoy unique and novel experiences, this coffee is perfect. It’s wild, twisty and the farthest thing from boring you’ll ever taste! The profile is very wine heavy with a dry, tannic finish. It’s also intensely sweet with notes of raspberry, cranberry and of course, grape. Speaking of grape, there’s a musky balsamic vinegar note which evokes old world depth and complexity. Finally, the acidity is quite tart and tangy so if you liked sour candy as a kid, this coffee is for you! This coffee benefits from a lengthy rest time. The longer it rests, the more the acidity will mellow out into a more balanced front end. We recommend resting for at least 5 days, but if you prefer more vivacious tangy bite, drink it earlier!
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: August 26th, 2022. US Arrival July, 2022
Acidity & Brightness: Tart and tangy, intensely sweet.
Balance & Finish: Complex with a tannic finish
Body & Texture: Full bodied and silky
Flavors: Raspberry, cranberry, grape & balsamic vinegar
Grade: Excelso, Grown at 1800 masl
Processing: Anaerobic Natural (Dry) Processed
Grower: Luis Ariel Bermudez Ramirez | Finca Las Mandarinas
Region: Algeciras, Huila, Colombia
Varietals: Caturra
Recommended Roast Range: City to Full City+ (Light to Medium-Dark)
Start at City + (light-medium) and go as dark as Full City+ depending on your desired flavor profile. You can certainly roast lighter, but the tartness can be overwhelming. Light-medium to Full medium roasts will match our described profile while roasts on the darker side of medium will tone down the tartness in favor of more balanced sweetness and a touch more body. This coffee greatly benefits from a lengthy rest time. Try to let it rest for at least 5 days after roasting for a more mellow acid profile. If you prefer a more intense experience, enjoy it earlier!
Royal Coffee - "Huila is arguably Colombia’s best-known department for bright and aromatic coffees, light on the palate and articulate in flavor. Huila is a long and narrow valley that follows a winding gap between two large cords of the Andes. Uphill from the valley’s lush and picturesque lower slopes (Colombia’s 950-mile long Magdalena River has its source in southern Huila and has shaped the agriculture here for centuries) are a diverse array of coffee producing communities, often dramatically steep, and each with their own unique climate and history. Algeciras is one such community, located near the middle of the department and tucked away in its Eastern foothills near the border of Caquetá. Las Mandarinas belongs to Luis Ariel Bermudez Ramirez and this is the first time coffee from this small family farm has been marketed and sold as a micro-lot, rather than part of a regional blend. Natural processing at Las Mandarinas is a multi-week endeavor, due to the specific profile preferences of the family, as well as the local climate. Coffee cherry is carefully hand-picked in the field and then floated to remove under-ripes, dirt and debris. The sorted cherry is then allowed to ferment as whole fruit for up to one week in tanks, allowing sugars to peak inside the cherry and to allow the seed ample time to absorb flavors and acids from the changing fruit. After this step the cherry is washed, inspected again for imperfections, and then transferred to the family’s parabolic dryers, where it dries for an additional 15 days as a full natural. Azahar Coffee, the sourcing company and exporter of Luis’ coffee, originally began as a specialty roaster and coffee boutique in Bogotá serving Colombia’s top quality microlots to a developing local consumer base. In time, Azahar began making international connections to their farmer contacts and exporting green coffee, with top traceability and ambitious price transparency, to select buyers in a few northern markets. The business has evolved to what is now a very sophisticated exporting model. Azahar partners with local grower organizations to identify coffees and producers of the highest potential, pull these aside from the usual export stream, and market them directly to buyers internationally on a quality-based pricing scale. The net effect of the intervention is often significantly more money than a farm could receive without the added exposure and marketing. Through Azahar, countless farms and communities are being uncovered and sold globally with traceability not experienced before.”
