Crown Jewel Colombia Los Quingos José Betancur Patiño Double Fermented CJ1516 – 29613 – SPOT RCWHSE

Taste

Taste Analysis by Chris Kornman 

The Crown Jewel Colombia menu of late has been a little out of control, with co-fermented coffees using Chili and Galaxy Hops, a Chiroso cultivar, and of course the unconventional Pink Bourbon selection, so it’s a bit of a relief for me to have stopped to smell the roses, so to speak, with this very nostalgic, very delicious coffee from José Betancur in north central Cauca.  

A perfect pairing of old meets new, the classic southern Colombia flavor profile is executed here with grace and poise, using non-traditional double-fermentation and a relatively new cultivar, Castillo. The result is a cup with substantial depth, without feeling heavy, some serious citrus flavor without ever approaching sourness, and plenty of nuance without a whisper of pretentiousness. 

On our first cupping I relished the black cherry note, so characteristic of the region and not really equaled elsewhere in the world. Sure, every other cupper says “cherry” at the cupping table, but no one really means it the way they mean it with a coffee from Cauca. 

Subsequent production roasts as we prepare to roll this coffee out as our new light roast batch brew brought notes of plum, apricot, clementine orange, green grape, and mango from the team. The lighter flavors are anchored by a substantial cacao-nib undertone, just rustic enough to feel substantial.  

Source

Source Analysis by Mayra Orellana-Powell with Chris Kornman 

Coffee cultivation from small family-owned farms is the backbone of production in Colombia. Banexport, a Colombian export company, works directly with many of these producers who have a shared commitment for exquisite coffee processing, and loving care for their farms and the environment. Banexport helps producers gain access to technical support regarding best practices for farm management, processing the harvest, and cupping feedback, which helps producers improve the quality of their coffee. The model of collaborative effort produces traceable lots with vibrant regional profiles. 

This lot comes from an individual producer named José Betancur Patiño, who has a 15-acre farm called Villa Marcela located in the municipality of Caldono within the department of Cauca. With guidance from Banexport, José follows a strict post-harvest protocol using his own micro-mill, which allows for consistent processing. 

José focuses on selective picking, then floats the cherries to remove damaged and underdeveloped beans. Next, he takes the added step of macerating the cherry for 24 hours before depulping to remove the skin, and ferments for 18 hours to remove the mucilage before washing the coffee seeds. The wet parchment is dried to 11 percent moisture over a period of 7 days on raised beds. After processing, Banexport provides crucial logistical support for things like warehousing and milling coffee for export to the international market, which provides better income for José to reinvest in his farm and strengthen his family’s livelihood. 

Cauca alongside neighboring Nariño and Huila represent the new frontier for specialty coffee production in southwestern Colombia. Smallholder farmers in the south, with relatively newfound access to international markets, are growing and processing some of the best-tasting coffees in the country. With the increasing attention to fermentation techniques, like we see employed here by José Betancur, the sky may be the limit in terms of exciting flavors. This is a recent, favorite example of some of the best of what Cauca has to offer: incredible cleanliness and balance with unmatched depth. 

Green

Green Analysis by Chris Kornman 

Green Coffee from Colombia, for many specialty buyers, once fell into two simple categories: Supremo or Excelso. However, with increased attention to smallholder production of superb specialty lots with farm-level traceability and a new wave of processing techniques, green coffee is no longer beholden to such strict screen designations. 

José Betancur’s coffee is graded mostly 16-18 and measures at a moderate density with a moisture content characteristically ever so slightly above average. In many ways, it’s a very normal looking green, and shouldn’t offer much in the way of resistance to heat or trouble in storage prior to roasting. 

The cultivar is 100% Castillo, which perhaps five or seven years ago might’ve caused roasters to balk at the possibility of good flavor. I think we can definitively pronounce that sentiment as debunked, however, with countless small lots from attentive producers (this one included) yielding exceptional cup scores. The tree type, developed by the Colombia Coffee Growers’ Federation (FNC) at their Cenicafé research department, is an F5 backcrossed hybrid designed specifically to resist leaf rust through a combination of hardiness and genetic diversity. There are multiple strains within each bag of seeds, and a dozen or so regional blends all housed under the umbrella Castillo designation. 

Diedrich IR-5

Diedrich IR-5 Analysis by Doris Garrido 

Lately, since I have been working with coffees from Colombia that came with different fermentation processes, I am taking specific approaches during roasting. For the most recent light roast offering at the Crown we have selected a washed coffee that came from the region of Cauca and was produced by José Betancur Patiño. 

I started the roast with higher heat application and 423F temperature. I was thinking of spending less time drying in order to make Maillard a little longer. The moisture level on this coffee came in good (11%) and I wanted to use it during yellowing. I started lowering the gas at 3:00 to get in 30% gas before yellowing. After a minute of yellowing, I started 50% air. I wanted to spend as much time here as I could before first crack. The main idea was shortening drying and stretching Maillard. I thought this would be appropriate because of the coffee density and moisture levels. 

At 370F I went to 100% air and hit the first crack at 8:58 minutes 382.9F. In the middle of development time I went all the way to 0% gas with enough energy to finish the roast with 1:20 seconds of development time and a 396F end temperature.  

I believe all the air I was using during Maillard turned my coffee clean, which I really was looking for. The brightness of the cup shined great, but on the other hand, adding the air a little later may work on the sweetness/caramelization area if we are looking for more sweetness. The biggest part of the roast was spent in Maillard area and showed up in the texture with the jammy taste of a ripe guava. On the cupping table, we tasted Bing cherry, juicy lemon, sweet cherry, tart acidity, peach, honey sweetness, cacao nibs, and ripe guava. 
 

Aillio Bullet R1

Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Evan Gilman 

Unless otherwise noted, we use both the roast.world site and Artisan software to document our roasts on the Bullet. You can find our roast documentation below, by searching on roast.world, or by clicking on the Artisan links below.  

Generally, we have good results starting our 500g roasts with 428F preheating, P6 power, F2 fan, and d6 drum speed. Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing! 

This phenomenal coffee heralds a very happy New Year for this humble roaster. While I have tasted a good many Colombian coffees, the very best among them continue to surprise and enthrall me with their sparkling cleanliness and eminent quaffability.  

The roast path I took here was a simple one, as I expected very consistent and middle-of-the-road green characteristics from this immaculately processed Colombian coffee. Starting with 437F charge temperature, P9 heat, and F2 fan, I hit this coffee with plenty heat from the outset. I know from experience (and this may be only my experience) that Colombian coffees tend to maintain their Rate of Rise well after reducing heat and introducing airflow, especially early in the roast cycle. This was exactly the case here, where after reducing my heat to P8 and increasing fan speed to F3, the coffee’s RoR actually increased a bit. Seeing this, I reduced heat further to P7 as this coffee was taking off all by itself. Just after marking Yellowing, I did something a little different: returned to P8 power for one minute and increased fan speed to F4. Just before First Crack, I reduced heat to P6, then P5, and increased fan to F5. Aside from the mid-Maillard boost in heat, a simple reduction as the roast went along.  

One note: I don’t believe my roast loss percentage is correct for this roast. It definitely did not turn out as dark as 14.6% roast loss would have you believe. There may have been a few beans flung out of the roasting chamber at the end of roast that I missed.

The results were phenomenal. This coffee plainly sparkled in the cup, with crisp green grape, fresh Bosc pear, and sweet orgeat notes. Of course, the ever-present and expected cherry note was there, but this coffee brought me new joy each time I tasted it. All of this tied up nicely with a bow of fresh, clean lime acidity.  

I suppose this coffee would work well as an espresso but having it as a filter drip really made me rethink whether the third cup should be my last of the afternoon. This coffee will shine as a filtered offering for certain, but try it every which way – especially considering MJ’s notes below. Darker roast profiles will likely bring out that vaunted cherry note, but this coffee will perform well in any style roast. Say it with me: Holy Cauca! 

You can find my roast on roast.world here: https://roast.world/@egilman/roasts/KKDBca9tIZD5xXozV81Dn

Ikawa Pro V3

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Our current Ikawa practice compares two sample roast profiles, originally designed for different densities of green coffee. The two roasts differ slightly in total length, charge temperature, and time spent between color change in first crack. You can learn more about the profiles here. 

When first developing my palate, I felt particularly adept at identifying flavors and tasting notes. Cupping was this new world of prestige and body awareness, made less intimidating when tasting coffees in a slightly sweaty roaster warehouse in Florida. I could identify exciting notes but could not discern the difference between a good coffee from a great coffee — a coffee that made my old boss jump on his toes a bit and say “now that is a really good coffee”. The more I cup the more I feel a bit like a novice but when tasting this coffee there is no mistaking how good this coffee is from producer José Betancur Patiño. While it might not be the loudest cup on the table it is likely to be the most chuggable. Some initial notes from team on this coffee include Bing cherry, cacao nibs, date, honey, jam, peach, guava and sweet herbal.  

The light-density roast of this coffee offered up notes of apricot, butter, cantaloupe, peach, and raw sugar with some almond and fruit notes on the aroma. I really enjoyed the thick buttery body balanced with a mild acidity. The high-density roast offered a slightly different lens with apple, cherry, limeade, melon and peach. It retained a little bit of butter body and had a sharp acidity to it. Overall brighter, and it felt as though it was saying a little bit more.  

Even though the acidity on the high-density roast was pleasant I really enjoyed the buttery feel of the low-density roast. The cup was clean, sweet and balanced; an ideal coffee all around. This slurpable coffee will fit nicely in any spring-summer menu with fruit notes of apricot, cantaloupe and peach.  

You can roast your own by linking to our profiles in the Ikawa Pro app here: 

Roast 1: Low Density Sample Roast 

Roast 2: High Density Sample Roast 

Brew

Brew Analysis by Colin Cahill 

We’ve been playing around with beautiful Colombian coffees as they’ve been coming into the Crown over the last couple of months, and they are generally such a joy to brew up and sip on. Here in the Tasting Room, as we brew up coffees from the same or similar origins with the same or similar processing methods, we start to theorize how they will perform in brewers, and those theories tend to guide our preliminary brew recipes. We’ve settled into a sweet spot with most of our newest Colombian coffees on the Kalita Wave, so we played around with this new coffee, beautifully grown and processed in the Andes, first on the Wave. We were receiving heavier brews than expected, so we reduced our starting dose to 18 grams and coarsened the grind up and received a delicious brew with a more typical TDS and extraction percentage. We switched up the brewing device to a conical brewer to bring the TDS and extraction percentage down a little further, and found a happy spot that yielded sweet, clean, fruity and floral brews.  

On the Kalita Wave, our brews dosed at 19-20 grams and ground at a 9 and finer on our EK43 were coming out bright, tart, heavy, and a bit bitter. With a lighter dose (18 grams) ground at a 9.5, brewed up with 300 grams of water, we received a sweet, complex brew with a more ideal TDS reading of 1.44, reflecting a 20% extraction rate. In this brew, shared across our team, we tasted lots of lemon, grapefruit, plum, Asian pear, jasmine, rose, almond and dark chocolate. This brew had really satisfying layers of flavor and a pleasing body. While this brew was delicious, we cleaned it up a bit more by keeping the same recipe while switching to the Hario V60 brewer. 

On the V60, the brew finished a bit faster, in 3:10 (compared with 3:45 on the wave), with a TDS of 1.33 and an extraction percentage of 19.3. This brew was a bit lighter and cleaner than our brews from the Kalita Wave, and it was exceptionally sweet, giving us layers of brown sugar and honey, and sweet fruits—think ripe honeydew, peach, and pluot. While the citrus notes were softer, with a more delicate acidity, the floral notes continued to dominate in this brew. We tasted lavender and rose, with a soft, more floral ginger note.  

This is a delicious coffee that performs beautifully across brewers, though we had a preference for the cleaner, more balanced brews coming out of the Hario V60. It is a bean that gives off a lot of flavor and is a crowd-pleaser when brewed with a lower dose and a lower TDS. We’re hoping to feature this coffee as a filter option here in the Tasting Room, so come on by to enjoy it with us! 

Espresso

Espresso Analysis by MJ Smith 

Wow! This coffee makes for a truly amazing espresso. With my first sip, before I had even dialed in completely, I could tell that I was going to love it. I tried several different recipes, and each one had me running across the building to share it with the rest of the team. While both recipes I’m going to talk about varied in some tasting notes, they shared a deliciously creamy body, citrusy brightness, and floral finish.  

Recipe 1: 

Dose: 18g, Yield: 39g, Time: 32s 

After reading Colin’s Brew Analysis suggesting a lower dose for this coffee, I started with a dose of 18g of coffee. This shot pulled at 32 seconds with yield of 39g. I’m not kidding when I say that I was about to write this entire analysis about how good this one shot was… It was citrusy and bright at the front, with a round, creamy body, and beautiful floral and spicy finish. It had all the components of a delicious, well-rounded “classic” espresso, but the quality of the coffee takes it to a whole new level. I ran some tiny sips of it out to the rest of the team and everyone agreed that it was a darn good shot of espresso. We picked up tasting notes of lemon candy (think Skittles), lavender, rose, milk chocolate, ginger, black tea, and baking spice.  

Recipe 2: 

Dose: 19g, Yield: 38g, Time: 28s 

Even though I was completely satisfied with that first recipe, I was curious what a higher dose and faster shot time would come out like. I bumped the dose up to 19g and pulled a shot with a time of 28 seconds and a yield of 38g. Y’all. This shot checked ALL the boxes. It had me pulling extras so that I could share it with the whole team (hey, if I’m going to be wired off espresso, I’m taking everyone with me…) It still had that bright citrusy front and creamy body, but this shot was much more developed, with distinguishable sweet, fruity, and floral notes. We tasted citrus, graham cracker, brown sugar, apple, pear, hibiscus, and nasturtium; which, if you lived in the Bay, you might know as those bright orange/red vine-like flowers that grow everywhere. They have a slight sweet and peppery flavor, and also happen to be native to Colombia!  

All-in-all, this is a spectacular coffee no matter how you decide to brew it, but I will say that it really shines brightly as an espresso. While delightful on its own, it’s also quite tasty in milk-based drinks such as a cortado!