Colombia Campo Hermoso

Coffee overview

A sensational watermelon coferment which offers a face-melting intensity of watermelon and strawberry candy. This one will fill the room with juicy candy aromas from the jump, and will linger on your palate well after the cup is empty. Buckle up! This is the public release of last month's Mystery Coffee League.

Coffee flavor profile

Watermelon candy, strawberry candy, hibiscus.

Acidity: berry-like, intense
Sweetness: candied
Body: tea-like
Funk: Level 2 (unnatural funk)

Brewing evaluation

Rest: 20+ days recommended

Filter eval day 1: Gabi Standard Recipe of 1:18 shows an astoundingly intense cup laden with watermelon and strawberry candy notes. The cup is overwhelming in aroma. Slightly artificial sweetness. Very long, lingering finish.

We use 60 hardness, 20 buffer water heated to 198F in all of our recipes.

Information

Farm: Campo Hermoso
Producer: Edwin Noreña
Region: Quindio
Country: Colombia
Variety: Castillo field blend
Process: High-intervention honey coferment
Process details: 

Edwin’s processing for this particular lot involved three distinct fermentations: one of purely fresh whole coffee cherries; a second “classic washed” fermentation of depulped parchment; and a final fermentation of the parchment submerged in a carefully formulated solution of coffee cherry must (a biproduct of the first fermentation) and a cocktail of fresh and dehydrated fruit. Each stage adds a particular twist to the sweetness and acid character. The final fermentation really seems to have turned the fruit up to 11. 

The first fermentation was with fresh coffee cherry only, carefully hand-sorted for ripeness and consistency, washed clean, and immediately moved into sealed tanks to ferment for 96 hours. During this first fermentation the fruit becomes dramatically softer, sweeter, and more acetic, while also leaching out a concentrated sticky, sugary runoff, or “must”, not unlike the must from freshly smashed grapes and skins in winemaking.  

After the first 96 hours were complete, the fermented cherry was depulped and moved back into the tanks for 48 hours. A classic anaerobic “fully washed” fermentation. During this time, the must runoff from the cherry fermentation was also fermented, on its own, and infused with fresh and dehydrated fruits, creating an intense flavoring solution for the final fermentation stage. 

The final fermentation was of the parchment coffee, submerged 30% in the lacto-fermented coffee-fruit must, for 48 hours. Once this was complete the parchment was moved directly to raised beds in Edwin’s solar dryer, where it dried for 10 days. 

The fully dried coffee is then conditioned for 8 days in a warehouse, allowing for humidity to stabilize inside the seeds, and then moved into GrainPro bags for long-term storage, where it is cupped numerous times over the next few weeks for quality analysis.

Exerpt from Royal Coffee

Sourcing: Royal Coffee