Crown Jewel Ecuador Pichincha Galo Morales Fermented Honey Sidra

Taste

Taste Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Galo Morales is a pioneer of great coffee in many ways and one of the only producers that can consistently sell a Gesha to Royal Coffee. The farm itself is close to a century old with experience passed down from generation to generation. A culmination of hard work, familial support and experimentation has created a legacy for Galo Morales and his family in the coffee industry.  

A little bit complicated and maybe even a bit understated, this honey Sidra from the famed Galo Morales should be on your menu this year. Unique in its seamless mix of herbal notes, baking spices, sesame notes and citrus.  

Akin to a fancy pastry at a bakery that prides itself on mixing contemporary and classic flavors. Toasted sesame as a topper, fresh chamomile, milk chocolate, lime, lemongrass – the list goes on. I’ll leave it to the pastry chefs to make these notes into something cohesive, I’m just the messenger.  

Dense without being heavy, rich without being too sweet. This is the idyllic balance of everything you didn’t know you needed from a coffee. Upon further investigation the team found even more interesting notes in the brew and espresso analysis. Lime and lemongrass were consistent in the brews but the team also discovered flavors like fenugreek, bergamot, basil and frosting.  

One of our baristas and instructors, Tim Tran, is planning on using this as a base for their drink they plan to present at Coffee and Good Spirits. This is a testament to the intrigue and uniqueness of the coffee without being too overwhelming to put in an experimental style drink for a coffee competition.  

Great for a coffee competition, great for your café. The uses are endless with this memorable and unique honey Sidra. 

Source

Source Analysis by Mayra Orellana-Powell & Charlie Habegger

Sidra may have mythical origins as a cultivar, but that doesn’t make it any less incredible in the cup when produced well. For many cuppers, Sidra’s ability to express Ethiopia-like aromatics and fresh tropical fruits and herbs is what endears them to Ecuador’s coffee sector as a whole; Sidra after all was discovered here, the way Gesha was discovered in Panama, and by now the cultivar as grown in Pichincha is considered one of the best washed terroirs in the world. 

The Crown was made for coffees like this one: rare and difficult to source but something of a benchmark for arabica’s potential at the same time. It’s familiar but startlingly good and immediately evokes a sense of place, the way a great Nyeri does, the fun of it being that for many this place is brand new.   

Finca Cruz Loma  

Galo Fernando Morales Flores, along with his wife Maria Alexandra Rivera and his extended family, grow coffee on their 350-hectare plot in the community of San José de Minas, a small town in the northwestern part of Pichincha, a short trip north of Quito. They describe their farm, Finca Cruz Loma, as a marvelous paradise whose temperate, tropical climate allows for a huge variety of flora to thrive. The family grows guanábana (soursop), corn, beans, and a plethora of citrus, all in addition to coffee.     

The principal harvest months in northern Pichincha are June to September, but Galo and his family continue picking through December. Ecuador’s namesake position on the Earth’s equator means that medium-altitude coffee enjoys practically a perfect year-round growing season, often with flowering and ripe cherry sharing the same branch most months.  

Coffee, though always a source of income, has recently brought a lot of recognition for Galo, Maria Alexandra, and the whole family, as winners of Pichincha’s regional quality competition and as featured producers in Ecuador’s national barista competition, both in 2019. In 2020, Cruz Loma took third place in the national “Taza Dorada” quality competition. Across residents and tourists alike Ecuador has a strong domestic market for roasted coffee (part of the reason so little is exported), which means honors such as these have no small impact on a farm’s brand.   

Finca Cruz Loma has been in Galo’s family going back 80 years. His grandparents were the first owners, who passed the property to their children, and now he and his four brothers are in charge. Galo’s experience in coffee began 20 years ago working alongside his mother on the farm; he would go on to work professionally in the coffee sector, for exporters and as a project manager, before returning to full-time farming. In Galo’s words, “cultivating my coffee is an activity that allows me to apply and develop the skills and habits I’ve learned over the years; it’s also an essential resource for my family, since my wife, my daughters, and myself are all involved with the production and marketing of our coffee. Everybody in the family has a critical role in the coffee’s success.”  

Processing at Cruz Loma  

Together, the family oversees four unique processes for their coffee: fully washed; “anaerobic” washed, honey, and natural. This Sidra separation was processed as a honey: cherry was hand-picked and selectively sorted for ripeness and consistency in the field; after depulping the cherry, the parchment was fermented in open tanks for 48 hours and then moved without any further washing to Cruz Loma’s solar dryer where it spent 18-25 days on raised screen beds.  

Honey process coffees typically forego any fermentation step after depulping, instead going straight to drying with all the fibrous mucilage entangled around it. In this case, the mucilage has been broken down quite a bit and the parchment sheds some of it as a result. The resulting cup is still, compared to the washed Sidra lot we also bought, noticeably thick and sweet, with frosting-like sugars, fruit candy, peach tea, and chocolate.  

Sidra’s Origins  

Sidra, or “bourbon sidra” is believed to be some kind of hybrid of bourbon and typica—more specifically Bourbon and an “Ethiopian landrace”, which in genetic testing unfortunately just refers to any unspecified group of arabicas believed to originate in East Africa. It’s also widely believed that Sidra was developed on Nestlé’s research estate in northern Ecuador, and then somehow disseminated after the research estate’s closure. Some still believe it was first discovered by Pichincha farmers, noticing the plant’s unique upright stature, much in the same way Gesha was first identified in Panama in the early 2000s.  

Today almost all the world’s Sidra is still only grown in northern Ecuador and Colombia. The narrow growing region for Sidra, combined with its strong personality in the cup and limited terroir, has helped Sidra maintain a kind of marketplace all to itself. It doesn’t hurt that it can be this good, either. 

Green

Green Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Sidra is not often in commercial cultivation, but you can see it in circulation at barista championship competitions. A mix of Ecuador’s bourbon and an Ethiopian landrace hybrid, this cultivar is rare and expresses coveted flavors like botanicals and mint.  

Density is in the average range, with a little bit below-average moisture content and water activity. Take a look at the roaster notes to determine how to manage these variables in the roaster. 

Diedrich

Diedrich IR5 Analysis by Doris Garrido

I’ve roasted Galo Morales coffees before, and I know they are exceptional, but this harvest is mind blowing. I’ve always been intrigued by Ecuadorian Sidra cultivar, along with Typica Mejorada, and I’ve heard some theories about what makes them so special. But this harvest? I’m speechless.  

I have roasted this honey twice now, and I have to admit, I was intimidated the first time I tried. The sample I tasted (roasted by Patrick Kennedy at the Royal Emeryville office) was just incredible. So, I’ll share about my second try for production on the Diedrich roaster. 

I opted for a low charge temperature of 401F, no initial airflow, and 70% gas power. I ran the roast like this for four and a half minutes, spending 52% of the total roast time in the drying phase. This resulted in a short yellowing phase of 2 minutes and 42 seconds. As I approached the first crack, I started introducing airflow, first 50% and then quickly up to 100%. The development phase lasted one minute and 35 seconds, with a drop temperature of 400F. 

Sidra I would say is a great coffee cultivar that you can taste and is becoming one of my favorites. In this honey process version, you can appreciate the delicacy of its flavors. In this roast, we taste ripe mango, tropical fruits, pineapple, watermelon, plum, hibiscus, lemon verbena, candied fruit sweetness and sweet white grapes. 

Aillio

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.  

Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing! 

Roasting honey processed coffees is always an exploration in heat transfer. I’ve found over many, many roasts that these coffees tend to hold on to heat and continue a trajectory even after taking heat application out of the equation. I went into this roast with that eventuality in mind, and while I started off with the usual high heat application, I gave plenty of airflow along the way. 

With a charge temperature of 464F, P9 power, and F2 fan, this coffee still moved slowly through green/drying stage. Once in Maillard, it really started to cook. I did reduce heat to P8 at 275F / 2:00, after increasing fan to F3 at turning point, but even my adjustment to F4 at 340F / 4:10 didn’t reign this coffee in. I reduced heat to P7, also with little effect. Interestingly, I also reached first crack a little early on this coffee, at 375F / 6:04 and the result was a whopping 22% of time in post-crack development, even with a drop temperature of 392F and little roast loss (11.7%). I simply had no idea what this cup would taste like! 

What struck me first in the cup was the heavy chocolate. I have slowly been making my way through holiday candy, and into Girl Scout cookies, and this coffee fell right into desserty step. There’s a tart citrus zestiness here that reminds me of chocolate orange, though perhaps a bit more towards grapefruit or marmalade. It couldn’t be more different from the washed version if it tried, but all the same complexity is there – just in a completely different direction.  

This coffee would make a great espresso, as Tim shows below. Of course, it’s going to be delectable on drip too. I’d say don’t be afraid to take this coffee darker than I did. Those chocolatey sweet and zesty marmalade notes will just get more pronounced! Chugalug, indeed.  

Ikawa

Ikawa 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.

The team got an interesting blend of flavors on the initial cupping notes like fenugreek, lime, lemongrass and chamomile.

On the light density roast there was lots of creamy flavors and marzipan full front and center. The high density notes nurtured a little bit more of those sweet and herbal notes like fenugreek, banana and crips apple.

I recommend exploring the more complex version of this coffee with the high-density roast on the ikawa roaster. Happy cupping!

Brew

Brew Analysis by Tim Tran 

Sidra is an exciting cultivar to explore and relatively new to me personally. The opportunity to dig into a honey process of this cultivar from an esteemed producer like our friends at Cruz Loma was something I was more than happy to delve into. This coffee showcased a beautifully dynamic range of flavors that continued to surprise me with each brew! 

My brew analysis began with a fairly moderate grind setting at a 1:15.79 ratio. In one of those fortunate moments of striking gold, this brew ended up being my favorite, boasting pleasant notes of milk chocolate, brown sugar, basil, and blueberry – a striking combination of rich sweetness and herbaceous complexity. This brew had a fairly standard extraction at these settings, coming in at a 1.45 TDS and 19.8% extraction. 

For the next couple brews, I explored different grind settings. While the first brew was ultimately my favorite, these brews were still excellent cups in different ways, a testament to the dynamic nature of this coffee. Taking the grind setting much finer yielded a higher extraction cup, amplifying the herbaceous complexities in the coffee, with more prominent notes of basil, leafy greens, sun-dried tomato, and blackberries. Moving the grind setting much coarser resulted in an incredibly silky coffee, with notes of frosting, plum, and lemongrass. 

Delving into hybrid brewing yielded a beautiful cup of coffee as well. For this hybrid Hario Switch brew, I used a 1:11.25 ratio, with a 2:30 immersion period, resulting in a 4:00 total drawdown time. This coffee gave a higher TDS than the pourover brews but given the higher dose, provided a lower extraction percentage of 15.44%. At this lower extraction percentage the milk chocolate sweetness of this coffee really stood out and gave a decadent profile with accompanying notes of nutmeg and lime. 

Ultimately, I enjoyed the first brew as well as the hybrid brew the most. My recommendation for this coffee is to brew on a conical brewer or hybrid brewer with a moderately coarse grind setting, targeting extraction on the slightly lower range. 

Espresso

Espresso Analysis by Tim Tran

There’s always something memorable about “firsts” and for me, this was my first time experiencing a Sidra coffee as espresso. Already excited by how this coffee presented on the cupping table, I dove into this coffee with expectations in mind about how the espresso would taste, and I was pleasantly surprised by the resultant coffee. While espresso already proves to be flavor dense and complex, this coffee really highlighted just how much flavor a shot of espresso can really pack! 

I started this espresso analysis with a lower dose of 18.5g in, with a moderate grind setting, pulling out 36g in 0:27 seconds. This first espresso had a savory herbaceous profile, highlighting notes of oregano, rosemary, and sundried tomato. The coffee had a silky, medium-weight body that almost gave it a broth-like mouthfeel. 

In order to dial some of the astringency out, I moved to a much coarser grind and higher dose, of 20g in, pulling 38g out in 0:21 seconds. This brought forward a lot of underlying sweetness that accentuated the sundried tomato note, complemented by preserved lemon notes and pomelo acidity. 

Extending the dose to 21g in and 47g out, in 0:30 seconds stretched the citrus notes to be more dominant in the flavor profile, bringing a Meyer lemon to the forefront of the palate, with an almost quinine-esque bite to the espresso. 

Exploring a longer brew time by dosing 19g in, 39g out in 0:35 seconds yielded an interestingly complex espresso showcasing slightly different notes of melon, key lime, and brown sugar. 

I ultimately enjoyed the first and last recipes the most. I recommend this espresso at a higher dose and coarser grind setting, targeting faster brew times.