Crown Jewel Guatemala Washed Coccioes José Padilla & Gonzalo Hernández
39774-1 – SPOT RCWHSE
39774-1 – SPOT RCWHSE
Overview
The flavor profile is undeniably floral and Ethiopia-like, from jasmine, almond and orange blossoms to bergamot and tropical fruits like green mango, mandarin orange, and kiwi.
Our roasters encouraged keeping the roast light, quick, and with some airflow to preserve the delicate floral flavors.
Taste Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano & Chris Kornman
Trying this week’s trio of Guatemalan variety and process selections (Ciocces, Laurina, and anaerobic peaberry) on a pre-arrival cupping table was such a treat. It’s not all the time that arrivals are this exciting and exactly what you were hoping for... the long delay between approval and arrival, anticipation and realization, can incite forgetfulness, or worse, complicate the flavors of a nuanced coffee. In this case, expectation and reality aligned, and that realized hope was present in the flavor of Ethiopian arabica genetics.
This is an unmistakably floral coffee, eliciting comparisions at the cupping table to both Yirgacheffe’s renowned washed coffee profiles and that, of course, of the Gesha cultivar. Those flavors, as filtered through the lens of southeastern Guatemala’s terroir, express as not just jasmine-like, evoking California almond and orange blossoms, vanilla, rosemary, and bergamot. Beyond, or perhaps beside these effervescent aromas are those of subtle tropical fruits, from green mango to clean lime and mandarin oranges.
If anything, this coffee has range, from soft florals to sweet caramel you’ll find yourself exploring sparkly and herbal notes in between the star power of the florals and caramel. Botanicals and black tea unfold in aromatic accord with sweet facets, an oasis of lightness in the simplicity of your morning cup of coffee.
The two producers in charge of this project, José Padilla and Gonzalo Hernández have put an immense focus on genetic diversity of their estate. With the intention to show off the distinct flavors that are impacted by genetic variation, they fulfilled those expectations and you can see (or taste) the fruit of their labor in the cup. From espresso to pour-over, the expression is almost endless.
Source Analysis by Charlie Habegger
In 2011 friends José Padilla and Gonzalo Hernández gathered coffee seeds from their first project, a varietal coffee estate, or “garden” as they called it, in Costa Rica. They brought the seeds to a new location, in Suchitán, Guatemala, to establish a second estate modeled after the first. Combined, these two coffee “gardens”, both known as Coffea Diversa, now make up the largest private collection of coffee botanical variants in the world—more than 850 in total.
This small lot of washed “Cioccies” is from the Mayan Suchitán word for “garden.” Little is known about this cultivar except that it is likely a wild Ethiopian landrace collected near the city of Jimma in Ethiopia’s southwest. The stature of the plant is tall, spacious, and yields are extremely low compared to commercial cultivars. The cup flavors of this tiny microlot are very impressive, like the best Ethiopians or new world Geshas, and are intensely floral with syrupy sweet stone fruit, bright tomato, strawberry lemonade, and fresh basil.
Coffea Diversa
José and Gonzalo insist their estates are not coffee farms but gardens: “like in a conventional flower garden in which you find many types of plants producing many different types of flowers, in the Coffea Diversa Garden you will find many different types of rare coffee botanical variants.” They have a clear, and not incorrect, vision for the value of arabica diversity. Most of the world’s coffee has almost no genetic variation; differences in taste are largely generated by terroir. Coffea Diversa follows the opposite approach, introducing a huge range of genetics to single, preselected terroirs, allowing genetic differences to assert themselves in the cup. Part of the motivation is modeling durability: an ideal coffee farm will have genetic diversity in its coffee, at a minimum to make it more resilient against pests and diseases, but also to keep it competitive and prolific.
During harvest, fresh picked cherry from the farm’s small plot of Cioccies is collected and depulped the following day. Depulping is done using a Penagos machine, which depulps and pressure washes the sticky mucilage from the coffee seed to a predetermined degree. Once depulped, the parchment is fermented for 48 hours and then washed clean. Drying takes place on raised and lightly shaded screen beds and typically lasts 12-15 days, during which it is rotated 3 times per day.
Green Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano
All three major metrics, density, moisture content, and water activity are below average ranges. Roughly 80% of the screen size for this coffee is between the 16-18 range. Coffee Diversa estate focuses on genetic diversity on the property, and they are firm believers in the expression of coffee through different cultivar types. Thanks to this long work, we have had the opportunity to get our hands on the Cioccies cultivar. In the cup, we found it to be so expressive with florals and sweet herbaceous notes. Check out the tasting analysis for more details on flavor, and our roaster’s recommendations for how to manage this uncommon variety.
Diedrich IR-5 Analysis by Chris Kornman
This was an interesting bean to roast due in no small part to the general scarcity of information related to the Cioccies variety. An Ethiopian landrace, grown in a high-elevation but unfamiliar region of Guatemala, with somewhat large and decidedly low-ish density and quite low moisture physical specs, processed as a washed coffee.
My gut said, “try for a balanced approach.” I opted for a lower than usual charge temperature with a moderate soak but a closed airflow to try and retain trapped heat in the drum. I raised the heat setting to near-maximum at the turning point, and kept it there until color change was observed at around 305F, when I returned the gas to its minimum position and opened the airflow fully to try and extend the duration of Maillard reactions before first crack.
First crack started at a slightly low temperature, around 378F, and with my rate of rise showing no signs of slowing after a few seconds of moisture release from the beans, I went ahead and cut the gas off entirely for about thirty seconds, returning it to its minimum position and coasting to a finish temperature of 390F with about 45 seconds of little-to-no change in temperature. A slight crash, if you like. The total roast time was just over nine minutes, fairly brisk but not super-fast, and the ground ColorTrack reading of 53.39 put the coffee’s final color in range for our standard light roast pour-over.
The signature flavor profile we loved in this coffee, from its earliest samples to its arrival, has been a unique combination of intense tropical fruit flavor with distinctive floral notes. I almost captured this, falling a little short of “distinctive” and a little closer to “subtle” with this roast profile. I noted almond blossom, honey, pear, and vanilla at the cupping table, while colleagues tasted melon, green mango, white wine, and marzipan.
Having since tasted a few other iterations of this coffee, including Evan’s Bullet roast and Isabella’s turns on the Ikawa, I think this coffee shines with shorter roast durations, despite its relatively low density. I do not think it needs intensely long caramelization, or dark development color, but it likely will benefit from higher airflow settings to preserve the cleanliness and integrity of its floral characteristics.
Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Evan Gilman
We use the RoasTime app and roast.world site to document our roasts on the Bullet. You can find our roast documentation below by searching on roast.world, or by clicking on the link below.
Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing!
I also didn’t have green metrics going into this roast, so I decided to tread softly. Starting with 464F, P8 power, and F2 fan, I immediately ramped up to F3 in order to quell the initial heat application a bit. My peak rate of change was 35F/min, and just before that point I adjusted power to P7. At yellowing, I increased fan speed once more to F4, and waited until 360F / 5:45 to reduce power to P6. The coffee kept chugging along, and I decided to increase fan to F5 at first crack, which didn’t result in significant change. I really wanted to draw out post-crack development as this coffee was not taking color in the expected manner, so I increased fan speed to a risky F6 and lowered heat application to a scant P4. This basically resulted in a crash, but did afford a few more seconds in development, before dropping the roast at a very cool 390.4F / 8:58.
The coffee was mottled in color coming out of the drum, and I proceeded to kick myself a little, internally. Luckily my consternation wasn’t vindicated on the cupping table, as this roast turned out to be quite delicious!
The strong airflow in this roast helped to preserve some of the floral and herbal notes, with a backing of gentle black tea-like tannins. Slowing a touch through later Maillard developed some nice, caramelized sugar notes, and there was still plenty of limey acidity throughout the flavor experience. On the finish, I got a bit of peachy stonefruit, with a clean finish that dissipated off the tongue.
This is a very unique coffee in the cup, not just on the farm. If you haven’t been introduced to this cultivar yet, I can wholeheartedly recommend it not only for its cup profile, but also for its apparent flexibility in the roaster!
You can follow along with my roast here at roast.world: https://roast.world/egilman/roasts/CJOdNR2d5uQ05LSKf5Hnu
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.
On the high density roast of this coffee we found this coffee to be really round with lots of sesame notes and almond paste. Although it had some depth there was still a bright acidity to the coffee. The light density roast was quite bright with notes of lemon curd and even floral tones. The team had some trouble deciding which coffee we preferred but ultimately decided that the low density roast was the preference. It felt like the profile was more complete of a coffee.
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
Espresso Analysis by Tim Tran
Genetics-driven flavor is a unique point of focus for coffee coming out of the Coffea Diversa estate, and it is something I was happy to keep at the forefront of my mind. Cioccies is a cultivar that is a bit newer to my working knowledge of coffee, and so beyond Ethiopian landrace, a broad categorization, I wasn't sure quite what to expect. The answer, as should be no surprise, was a wonderfully dynamic coffee that was expressive in a plethora of manners, while still adhering to a comfortable point of return, as far as flavor was concerned.
The coffee throughout the many different espresso iterations I tried kept an incredibly pleasant, and almost fluffily sweet skeleton of flavor. Nearly all of my shots were pillowy in texture, with a soft roundness that really let the sweet, caramelized sugar notes stand out, and try as I might, even at a much longer 1:3 ratio, the body of the espresso really was reminiscent of marshmallows.
My favorite recipe throughout my analysis was with a 20 gram recipe of coffee, to pull 40 grams of espresso in 20 seconds. This fast brew time showcased a bright, honeyed, lemonade-like espresso shot, with plenty of notes of lime, apricot, some white tea florality, and a warming spiced cinnamon note. The tighter ratio with a higher dose made for a plentifully textural shot, with fruity lime notes peaking out with the faster extraction time.
My second favorite recipe pulled the dose down to 18 grams of coffee, to brew 38 grams of espresso in 27 seconds. Moving towards a tighter grind pulled the citrus profile in a different direction, reminding me of orange, with a combination of clove and honey, not a far cry from a sweetened citron tea. The coffee was rich and full of texture, and that in combination with the florals really did give thought to strong Ethiopian-driven genetics of the coffee.
Overall an excellent coffee with plenty of tasty flavors to be found in varying concentrations. This coffee has a lot to delve into – I would not be afraid of shying towards a higher coffee dose and targeting faster extraction times for a healthy amount of complexity in the cup! Come pick up some of this unique cultivar, cheers!