Coffee knowledge: what flavor does Colombia Finca El Paraiso Sakura show?

The Cherry Blossom anaerobic bean from Finca El Paraiso in Colombia carries a distinctively aromatic profile with a faint hint of mugwort. The estate, owned by Diego Samuel, is family-run and grows Bourbon, Laurina, Geisha, Castillo and Colombia varieties. The Colombian lot reviewed here belongs to the Castillo variety, bred locally and promoted from 2005.

Castillo is known for aroma and citric acidity compared with Typica. During cupping, the dry fragrance showed basil and rosemary, while the wet aroma offered chamomile and strawberry jam. The cup combined chamomile, basil and rosemary with fermented strawberry jam and sweet-tart strawberry. The same estate's Strawberry Yogurt double anaerobic washed bean was also evaluated as an SOE.

Front Street Coffee has previously offered several Colombian coffee beans, among which the Cherry Blossom anaerobic bean from Finca El Paraiso has a uniquely aromatic profile with a faint hint of mugwort. This article will guide you through the background of Finca El Paraiso, the characteristics of the Castillo variety, and Front Street's cupping and brewing process for this Cherry Blossom coffee. In addition, Front Street also evaluated the Strawberry Yogurt double anaerobic washed bean from the same estate and attempted to make it into an SOE. Through this article, you will gain an in-depth understanding of Finca El Paraiso's flavor expression and Front Street's selection standards.

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Front Street Coffee has previously launched quite a few Colombian coffee beans, and one of them—the Cherry Blossom coffee bean—comes from Finca El Paraiso, with a very unique aroma that carries a faint scent of mugwort.

Speaking of this Cherry Blossom coffee bean, Front Street will take the opportunity to introduce Finca El Paraiso. The estate owner is Mr. Diego Samuel, and this is a family-owned estate. In 2015, Diego Samuel took his own green coffee beans to a competition, and luckily, his green beans won first place in a regional green bean cupping competition. Since then, Diego Samuel has been dedicated to growing more high-quality coffee.

This Cherry Blossom coffee from Front Street comes precisely from Diego Samuel's Finca El Paraiso. According to Front Street's understanding, Finca El Paraiso currently mainly cultivates Bourbon, Laurina, Geisha, Castillo, and Colombia varieties. The Colombian coffee bean from Front Street belongs to the Castillo variety. This variety was developed through local research and breeding in Colombia and began to be vigorously promoted for cultivation in 2005. Compared with Typica, Castillo is known for its aroma and citric acidity.

Before launching it, Front Street cupped this Colombian coffee bean. The dry fragrance presented aromas of basil and rosemary, while the wet aroma offered the sweet scents of chamomile and strawberry jam. The overall flavor profile showed aromas of chamomile, basil, and rosemary, the fermented quality of strawberry jam, and the sweet-tartness of strawberries. Next, Front Street also brewed this Colombian Finca El Paraiso coffee bean.

When you purchase coffee beans from Front Street, what you receive is always a product roasted within 5 days. At this point, the coffee beans are still degassing vigorously, so during brewing, the release of a large amount of carbon dioxide will affect extraction uniformity. For this Finca El Paraiso Cherry Blossom coffee bean, Front Street's roaster used a light roast, and the flavor is best from the 4th to the 20th day after roasting is completed. To brew light-roasted coffee beans, you can choose a V60 dripper, whose spiral-rib design can effectively enhance the coffee's overall layering.

Front Street's brewing parameters are: dripper: V60 #01, dose: 15g, coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15, brewing water temperature: 90-91°C, grind size: medium-fine grind (78% passing through a No. 20 standard sieve).

The brewing method used in Front Street stores is the common three-pour brewing method, which is relatively simple to operate. First, add 15 grams of coffee grounds. If the coffee bed is uneven, you can tap it gently to level the surface.

Begin the first pour by circling outward from the center and pouring in 30 grams of water, then let it bloom for 30 seconds. The ideal state is that the coffee grounds are evenly saturated with water and puff up into a small "coffee hamburger." After 30 seconds, begin the second pour with the water stream held 3-5cm high, pouring 95 grams of water in concentric circles from the center outward; at this point, the total water poured is 125 grams. Observe the surface of the coffee liquid—it should be entirely golden coffee foam. When the liquid level is about to expose the coffee bed, begin the final pour: 100 grams of water in this stage, slowly circling in concentric rings with a consistent flow. After all the coffee liquid in the dripper has flowed into the server, remove the dripper and end the extraction.

When tasting this cup of Cherry Blossom coffee, you can first smell its aroma. The aroma of this Cherry Blossom coffee bean is somewhat like the sweet scent of strawberry jam, and the first impression on the palate is sweetness, similar to the flavor of strawberry jam. The most captivating part is the finish: the mouthfeel and aftertaste of this Colombian coffee bean carry a cooling sensation like mint tea, which is very pleasant. As a coffee shop with more than two hundred single-origin coffee beans, Front Street does not cup only one coffee bean from Finca El Paraiso. Even within the same producing country, Front Street will acquire multiple coffee beans from different producing regions; for example, for Mandheling coffee beans alone, Front Street has launched five. There are also some coffee beans that, although cupped, Front Street feels do not have a prominent enough flavor, so it will create a coffee bean file for them, but they do not meet the launch standard and therefore will not be included in Front Street Coffee's bean list.

A few days ago, Front Street Coffee evaluated a double anaerobic washed Castillo coffee bean from Finca El Paraiso, commonly known as Strawberry Yogurt. This Strawberry Yogurt coffee bean underwent two rounds of anaerobic fermentation, was removed from the anaerobic environment, then processed by washing to remove the mucilage layer, and afterward sun-dried to reduce its moisture content to about 11%. When roasting this Colombian coffee bean, Front Street Coffee decided to use a medium-light roast in order to highlight the sweetness and aroma of strawberries. Front Street then immediately cupped it and found that this Finca El Paraiso coffee bean truly deserved the name Strawberry Yogurt, because during cupping, whether in dry fragrance or wet aroma, it had a very intense strawberry yogurt flavor; besides strawberry, the overall flavor also had the sweetness of peach and honey.

In addition to cupping this Colombian coffee bean, Front Street thought that since this Finca El Paraiso coffee bean performed so excellently in cupping and had such a unique flavor, could it be used to make an SOE? This is because coffee beans used for SOE mainly highlight the distinctive characteristics of a producing region or processing method, and this bean is very suitable. So Front Street deepened the roast level of this coffee bean, because the roast level for making espresso or SOE is deeper than that for pour-over coffee beans. After adjusting the parameters, the extraction plan was finally set as 20 grams of coffee grounds, extracting 40 grams of coffee liquid, in about 27 seconds, with the first drop of coffee liquid beginning to fall at the 5th second.

The resulting espresso had medium acidity, with an overall flavor resembling citrus and strawberry, as well as a finish of dark chocolate. Using the espresso extracted from Strawberry Yogurt, a hot Americano was made at a ratio of about 1:6 coffee liquid to water; the mouthfeel was very smooth, with medium body, carrying dark chocolate and a slight strawberry note.

However, even though this Strawberry Yogurt from Colombia's Finca El Paraiso has a very unique flavor, Front Street still did not add it to its pour-over coffee bean list, because it does not represent the flavor of Colombian coffee, and Front Street hopes that every coffee bean it launches is representative of its producing region.

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