How does Huila coffee taste, and how should it be brewed?

Huila coffee, grown in southern Colombia alongside Cauca, Nariño and Tolima, shows balanced acidity and a full body built from low latitude, high altitude and volcanic soil. The washed Caturra variety used in everyday decaf lots keeps that classic profile clear, which is why these southern regions remain a reference point for authentic Colombian flavor.

Colombia sits between 3 and 8 degrees north, with 2,000 to 3,000 mm of annual rainfall and elevations of 1,000 to 2,000 meters, letting the country harvest year-round. Expect roast curves designed for filter and V60 pour-over parameters that highlight sweetness and clarity, in contrast to the jammy, floral notes of newer innovative processing methods.

In recent years, Colombian coffee has frequently made a name for itself through various innovative processing methods, but behind these dazzling rising stars, the authentic flavors of traditional producing regions are equally worth exploring in depth. In this article, Front Street Coffee takes you into the boutique producing regions of southern Colombia—Huila, Cauca, Nariño, and Tolima—to discover the balanced acidity and full body woven from low latitude, high altitude, and volcanic soil. The article also provides a detailed introduction to Front Street Coffee's selected Huila washed everyday beans, covering everything from the characteristics of the Caturra variety and washed processing techniques to roast curve design and V60 pour-over parameters, fully presenting the journey of a classic Colombian flavor from origin to cup.

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In recent years, driven by various novel processing methods, Colombian coffee beans have become especially prominent in the specialty coffee scene. Among the Colombian coffee beans offered by FrontStreet Coffee, Flower Moon Night coffee exudes an intense fermented berry jam aroma, while Rose Valley coffee has captured the hearts of many female consumers with its enchanting rose fragrance and sweet peach-like clarity. These innovative processing methods have indeed given Colombian coffee a unique aromatic expression, but at the same time they have blurred people's understanding of the flavors of Colombia's producing regions themselves. So a friend asked Front Street: what should Colombian coffee producing regions originally taste like? Today Front Street will talk about this topic.

Colombia is located in the northwestern corner of South America, adjacent to Panama in Central America, situated between 3 and 8 degrees north latitude. It has a tropical climate, but weather conditions vary significantly with terrain elevation. The country is covered with fertile volcanic soil, with annual rainfall between 2,000 and 3,000 millimeters, moderate temperatures, and high humidity. This climatic diversity allows Colombia to harvest coffee year-round. The southern part of the eastern plains and the Pacific coast have a tropical rainforest climate, while the mountains at elevations of 1,000 to 2,000 meters have a subtropical climate, and the northwest has a tropical savanna climate. The average annual temperature ranges from 15.8 to 20.5 degrees Celsius, while the average temperature in coffee-growing areas fluctuates between 18°C and 22.5°C. Front Street believes that low latitude combined with high altitude and volcanic soil gives Colombian coffee a balanced flavor, intense acidity, and unique mouthfeel characteristics, with a relatively full body, sometimes with a hint of red wine-like character and commendable fruity notes.

Colombia's specialty coffee producing regions are mainly concentrated in the south, generally at elevations above 1,500 meters, distributed across Huila, Cauca, Nariño, and Tolima. These regions all possess delicate acidity and berry sweetness, with particularly outstanding sweetness expression. Huila Province is located at the southern end of Colombia's Central Cordillera in the south of the country and is the nation's most renowned specialty coffee origin. The region is surrounded by mountains, with growing elevations exceeding 1,500 meters. Several important Colombian rivers converge here, bringing abundant water resources and moisture. Unlike the general impression of commercial Colombian coffee as balanced and full-bodied, many smallholder micro-lot Colombian specialty beans actually have strong regional character. In recent years, as the international market has paid increasing attention to coffee quality and demand for specialty coffee has risen, the old system of grading by bean size has gradually been phased out, replaced mainly by micro-regional selections organized by smallholder coffee farmers, where dozens of smallholders pool their harvests into a single micro-lot for sale. In this way, through batch-by-batch cupping, there are more opportunities to select specific smallholder coffees of outstanding quality.

Cauca Province is one of Colombia's certified coffee origin regions, with an average elevation of 1,758 meters and a maximum of 2,100 meters. The region's terrain, rainfall, temperature, and volcanic soil all provide ideal conditions for coffee growing. Eighty percent of its territory is mountainous, with parallel mountain ranges in the east and center that are part of the Andes. The central range includes two major volcanoes, Sotara and Petacas. Cauca shares similar boundary conditions with other southwestern producing regions, with rainfall showing a distinct monomodal distribution. The dry season usually occurs in August to September each year, and the subsequent rainy season triggers a concentrated coffee flowering period, which in turn brings a concentrated coffee harvest season the following year.

The biggest climatic difference between Cauca and other producing regions is probably the large diurnal temperature variation, with a daily average temperature of 11°C and a daytime average of 18°C. Day-night temperature difference is one of the key factors in achieving high-quality coffee. Low nighttime temperatures combined with relatively higher altitude slow down the coffee's growth rhythm, allowing the coffee seeds and beans to more fully absorb nutrients from the coffee fruit, and also create Cauca coffee's more outstanding acidity and widely praised distinctive sweetness. Nariño Province is located in southwestern Colombia, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the west and Ecuador to the south, with the Andes running through the entire province. Coffee is grown in the high-altitude cloud belt at 1,600 to 2,300 meters, in fertile volcanic soil. The beans are small in shape but full, with an emerald green color. The vast majority of Nariño's annual production is purchased by large American bean dealers. Narino Province is located in southwestern Colombia, bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and neighboring Ecuador to the south, with the Andes running across the province. It has magnificent mountains and beautiful scenery, and many rivers flow southward through it. It belongs to Colombia's high mountain coffee-growing region and has nurtured many specialty coffee smallholders. Nariño's total annual production is about 150,000 bags, of which only about 6,000 bags are hand-selected beans.

Tolima is adjacent to Huila and Cauca, with the north-south running Andes (M. Andes) and Cordillera (M. Cordillera) traversing the entire territory. Between these two famous mountain systems flows the Magdalena River (R. Magdalena) from south to north. The name Tolima comes from the Pijao people who first lived here. In this ancient group's language (Pijao word), tolima means "snowed." Tolima's farms are generally slightly larger than those in other southern Colombian producing regions, at about 10 to 15 hectares. The cooperative model is also popular here, with farmers delivering their small batches of coffee cherries to the cooperative's processing plant. Some farmers also choose to process their own coffee, using their own small-scale processing facilities to handle the amount picked that day. Colombian coffee cultivation

In 1808, coffee was first introduced to Colombia, brought in by a priest from the French Antilles via Venezuela. Today the country is the second-largest producer after Brazil, with an annual output of 13 million bags of 60 kilograms each, while Brazil's output is 22 million bags. The status of Colombian coffee beans can be seen from the following example—all vehicles entering the country must be spray-disinfected to avoid inadvertently bringing in diseases that could harm coffee trees.

In the early 1960s, coffee yields were about 600 kilograms per hectare, and today they have increased to around 900 kilograms, with some farms even reaching 2,500 kilograms. However, ensuring quality has always been the primary issue for the coffee industry. In 1927, Colombia established the National Federation of Coffee Growers (Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros, FNC for short), responsible for quality supervision. Although the federation is a private company, it exercises functions on behalf of the government. In addition to organizing the industry, the federation is also responsible for raising and reserving funds in bumper years. In recent years, as coffee prices have continued to decline, the federation has nearly exhausted its financial reserves. The National Federation of Coffee Growers also undertakes responsibilities such as healthcare, education, road building, hiring cultivation technicians, conducting research, supervising product quality, directly handling 50% of total export business, and hiring marketing personnel. Like Kenya's national coffee management association, it is a model of coffee organization. At FrontStreet Coffee, what best represents the flavor of Colombia's producing regions is Colombia's everyday beans. When choosing a new everyday bean to offer, Front Street selects beans from major producing regions that best represent the local original flavor, and then introduces them to everyone in 100g small packages. Front Street hopes that every coffee lover can drink the basic flavor of a coffee producing region at the most favorable and cost-effective price.

Country: Colombia

Region: Huila

Altitude: 1,500-1,800 meters

Variety: Caturra

Processing method: Washed process

Flavor: Nuts, dark chocolate, caramel, soft fruit acidity

Coffee Variety

Caturra is a natural mutation of the Arabica variety Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its tree is not as tall as Bourbon, but shorter and more compact. Because it inherits Bourbon's lineage, its disease resistance is relatively weak, but its yield is higher than Bourbon's. Although it was discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not suitable for growing in Brazil, so it was not planted on a large scale there. Instead, it became widely popular in Central and South America, for example in Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, where Caturra is planted over large areas.

Washed Processing Method

Coffee farmers first pour the picked coffee cherries into a large water tank. Underdeveloped, poor-quality beans will float to the surface, while ripe, full fruits will sink to the bottom. At this point, the defective beans (fruits) floating on the surface are removed. Then the outer skin and pulp of the coffee fruit are removed with a pulping machine, and at this stage a slippery layer of mucilage still clings to the coffee beans. The coffee beans with mucilage are placed into a fermentation tank for 16 to 36 hours, during which microorganisms break down the mucilage. After fermentation is complete, a large amount of clean water is used to rinse off the remaining mucilage from the coffee beans. Finally, the washed coffee beans are spread out to dry. The washed processing method combines both soft and intense acidity, with a body that is neither too strong nor too light, and a sweet, spicy aroma.

Front Street takes into account that washed processing better reflects the cleanliness of coffee mouthfeel and the purity of flavor expression, so when analyzing the specific flavor of a coffee producing region, it uses that region's washed beans as a reference.

Front Street Roasting Suggestions

Because this Colombian Huila bean has relatively high density, uniform bean size, and a relatively full bean shape, Front Street's roaster wanted to express this bean with aromas of nuts, dark chocolate, and caramel, so after first crack the heat was adjusted and the roasting time was extended, dropping the beans at 3'00'' and 202°C.

Charge when the drum temperature reaches 185°C, set the damper to 3, heat to 120, turning point at 1'32'' and 98.6°C; when the drum temperature reaches 140°C, open the damper to 4; at this point the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell disappears completely, and the dehydration stage begins. When the drum temperature reaches 192°C, adjust the heat to 80 and open the damper to the maximum 5; at 8'30'', the bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and dark streaks, and the toast smell clearly turns into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'15''. After first crack, develop for 3'00'' and drop the beans at 202°C.

Front Street Cupping Report

How does a FrontStreet Coffee barista brew Colombian Huila coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee uses a V60 dripper to brew Colombian producing regions. The 60 conical dripper has relatively large holes, and together with its unique spiral curved ribs, air is more easily expelled, thereby improving extraction quality.

Water temperature: 90-91°C

Grind size: EK43s setting 10 (fine sugar size / 80% passing through a No. 20 sieve)

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Coffee dose: 15 grams

Front Street brewing method:

In the first stage, pour 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95 grams (electronic scale shows about 125 grams), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to two-thirds of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100 grams (electronic scale shows about 225 grams), completing the pour in about 1 minute 40 seconds. Drip completion at 2'00'', remove the dripper, and extraction is complete.

Brewed flavor: nuts, dark chocolate, soft fruit acidity in the middle, caramel sweetness.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.