This is a high intervention carbonic honey process coffee, co-fermented with peaches by producer Edwin Noreña on his farm, Finca Campo Hermoso located in Quindío, Colombia.
The flavor profile is, unsurprisingly, very peachy! Its hallmarks are extraordinary jelly or gummy-candy-like sweetness, floral aromatics, and strong flavors of stone fruits, including peaches, apricots, and nectarines.
Our roasters found applying full power through the middle phase, then easing off and finishing with full airflow will result in a smooth, candy-sweet, aromatic cup.
When brewed, we recommend a lower dose and a cone brewer to really bring out the sweetness.
A peach co-fermented lot has blessed us with its presence. I always expect the green to be a little bit wonky but we have normal specs all around. A wider screen size spread paired with a very low density makes it ideal for gentle roasting. Moisture content is in the ideal range with water activity sitting a little bit higher than average. On first opening this coffee you’ll notice a strong peaches and cream aroma, candy like scent alone. When roasting you get even more delicious aromas coming from it.
Caturra, natural mutation of the Bourbon cultivar is known for it’s good yield potential but also has high susceptibility to coffee leaf rust. First discovered in Brazil, a single gene mutation causes the plant to grow smaller. Due to its size, producers can plant more in one area and have an easier time spraying the plants with different treatments as needed. Castillo replaced a lot of Colombia’s Caturra in just a few years of dispersal, which created some panic in specialty. Caturra is still considered a kind of ‘original’ cultivar that Colombia did well with prior to rust. It’s still widely planted but not dominant as before.<
From finca Campo Hermoso, we received a Caturra with a high-intervention honey process, co-fermented with peach.
Considering its low density and average moisture, I decided to roast this coffee slowly and gently, aiming for an average time roast of 9 minutes.
I preheated the roaster to 390F and started the roast with 70% gas during the first 30 seconds.
After turning point, I cranked the gas to 100% at the 2-minute mark. I kept the gas at 100% until 4:30, then dropped it to 30%. The color change started earlier, which seems to happen more often with high-intervention process coffees.
For the rest of the roast, I added full airflow and watched as it approached the first crack and developed the coffee for a minute and thirty seconds. 399F was the end temperature and the roast duration was 9:29 minutes. The final cup was not only aromatic but also presented a silky sweetness. With notes of coconut milk, candy, gummy, honeydew, peach and creamy starburst- like candy.
Overall, it reminded me of a juicy orange creamsicle or fruity punch. I’d call it dessert in a cup.
by Katie Briggs
We are soaking up the last few warm days here in the bay area, and this honey peach co-ferment is the perfect send off into the fall season. With sweet complexity, soft acidity and the peach really coming through, this coffee feels more like a nice peach flavored black tea in the summertime. Here are some brews I did of this coffee to get it tasting just right!
I started out with a dose of 19 grams of coffee and ground it at a 10 and brewed it on a V60 cone brewer. I did an initial pulse of 50 grams of water and let it bloom for 40 seconds. I then did another pulse of water up to 200 grams, and then the final dose up to 300g. This first brew was okay, it did taste a bit heavy, so I wanted to fix that on the next brew. We got notes of peach rings, black tea, and hibiscus.
I wanted the next brew to be a lot softer, so I decided to down dose to 18 grams for the next one. I did the brew on the same V60 cone brewer and did the same water pulses. This one turned out much better! We got notes of peach black tea, lemon, and jasmine. I liked this one a lot but wanted to see if I could get it just a little more sweet and delicate.So for this next brew, I did the same as the last essentially, except I ground it at a 10.5. I liked this brew a lot as well! I got a lot more of that sweetness I wanted. We got notes of strawberry, lemon zest, caramel, and peach tea. This was definitely the brew I was looking for! I did one more of this same brew on the Kalita Wave flatbed brewer just to see how it would do, but it brought that heaviness back into it and I was not a fan.
All in all this is such a fun coffee! I think these fruity fun co-ferments would be so good as iced coffee, but either way you enjoy it will be a good time. I would recommend a lower dose and a cone brewer for this coffee to really bring out the sweetness. The perfect coffee for the transition to the fall season! Cheers!
