Finca Santuario

Beans: Finca Santuario
Roaster: Home roasting 
Roasting Degree: Full City
Origin/Area: Popayán, Departamento del Cauca, Colombia
Grade: Excellso
Screen: N/A
Defect: N/A
Altitude: 1,850-2,100m
Variety: Bourbon 
Process: Washed

【Flavor scale】
Aroma: 4
Sweetness: 5
Acidity: 4
Bitterness: 4
Richness: 4
※Grade 1 to 5

【Impression】
Bold, sweet aroma, vanilla, soothing cacao, hot chocolate, lightly fruity, orange, peach, fuzzy, caramel, complex, full mouthfeel, mild acidity, cooling, light texture, distinguishable sweetness, criollo cacao chocolate, mixed spice, not overly rich but memorable and impressive, juicy, clean, well-balanced sweetness, round, bitterness and acidity, chestnuts honey, syrupy, hazel nuts, brown sugar, cocoa, citric, lemon and lime, matured clean traces of cocoa, syrupy, clean sweetness and round flavor as a long lasting aftertaste.

【Note】
Finca Santuario was designed and founded as an sustainable coffee farm to resurrect old Columbia mild coffee in 1999.  The estate is surrounded by a wild forest, tall trees, which provide desirable shade for coffee trees.  Coffee trees are planted about 70 percent of the estate.  The owner, Camilo Merizalde, changed his carrier from a successful businessman to a coffee farmer.  He cultivate the land own by his wife's family and named "Santuario", which means sanctuary or shrine.
Thanks for altitude, no pesticide needed to manage trees.  Instead of using chemical fertilizers, they decided to use organic manures and Tephrosia, plant in pea family, to manage soil condition.  

Finca Villa Maria

Beans: Finca Villa Maria
Roaster: Namamame Hompo
Roasting Degree: City
Origin/Area: Samaniego, Nariño, Colombia
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Defect: N/A
Altitude: 2,069m
Variety: Columbia, Castillo, Caturra
Process: Washed
※2014 CEO winner of Colombia South program

【Flavor scale】
Aroma: 4
Sweetness: 4
Acidity: 4
Bitterness: 4
Richness: 4
※Grade 1 to 5

【Impression】
Medium dark to dark, fruity, dark chocolate, Vin d'Alsace, a touch of cardamon, taffy, roasted almonds, Jasmine, medium body, well balanced, matured sweetness, sharp and clear bitterness, mellow, sophisticated, Framboise, cacao nib, Raspberry, lychee, milky sweetness of cashews, layers of elegant sweetness and bitterness followed by bright acidity of lime juice, clean fruity acidity as a long lasting aftertaste.  

Alto Del Obispo, Clombia

Beans: Alto Del Obispo
Roaster: Home roasting
Roasting Degree: City
Origin/Area: San Agustín, Huila, Colombia
Grade: Excelso
Screen: 14 to 16
Defect: N/A
Altitude: 1,730m
Variety: Typica
Process: Fully washed

【Flavor scale】
Aroma: 4
Sweetness: 4
Acidity: 4
Bitterness: 4
Richness: 4   　　                  
※Grade 1 to 5

【Impression】
Light to Medium light, high in aroma, fruity, a touch of almond flower, caramel, hazelnuts, roasted kabocha pumpkin, sweet potato, bit smoky, linden, roasted wheat berry, medium body, well-balanced, mellow sweetness, raspberry, maple, heavy but clear bitterness, oak, acidity follow on the edge of bitterness, mild, juicy in texture, calming, herbal, sophisticated but daily flavor, mixed berry with bitter chocolate, blackberry like sweetness with clear bitterness as a long lasting aftertaste.  

【Note】
Alto Del Obispo is the association of about 25 farmers near San Agustín, Huila, where well known as origin of Columbia mild coffee.  Including Nariño Department, Southern part of Columbia is home for a lot of high quality coffee estates.  This lot was highly selected: Hand-picked, ripe on trees, 24hrs fermentation, and fully sun dried.

Finca Maracaibo

Beans: Maracaibo
Roaster: Home roasting ～ experiment
Roasting Degree: Full city
Origin/Area:  Huila Department, Colombia
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Defect: N/A
Altitude: 1,750m ～
Variety: Katura, Burbon
Process: Hand picked, fully washed, sun-dried

【Flavor scale】
Aroma: 2
Sweetness: 3
Acidity: 2
Bitterness: 4
Richness: 4   　　※Grade 1 to 5

【Impression】
Dark,. rich, lemony aroma, honey, passion fruits, thick, lightly chocolaty, milk, soothing, light texture, well-balanced bitterness, tangy, mellow, demerara sugar, honey, a touch of Stevia, cacao nib, mint, mellow bitterness and caramel like sweetness as a long tasting aftertaste.

Finca Alcatraz, Wilfredo Ule Vargas

Name: Finca Alcatraz, Wilfredo Ule Vargas
Roaster:  Sightglass
Roasting degree:
Area: Huila, Oporapa, Colombia
Variety:  Caturra
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Altitude: 1,780m～
Defect: N/A
Processing Method: Washed, patio dried

【Impression】

Light to medium light, citric, lemony, red grape fruits, concord grape, lime, Madeline orange, high in acidity, a touch of light tangy-ness as matured red wine, bitter persimmon, shinny and bright, lime like freshness as a long lasting aftertaste.   

【Note】
Beautiful beans but rather small and rough surface.  
Sightglass roast always leaves full of silver skin, chaff, which makes coffee flavor cloudy.  There would be special technique to extract fine flavored coffee out of so called Scandinavian roasting beans, but I need more experience and blessings to figure out how.  Some says silver skin creates an aspect of flavor, which could be true for the light-roast fans and supporters.  In my opinion, coffee flavor could be more clear and more friendly if there are less chaff.  

On cozy afternoon, if there are enough time to enjoy a cup, it could be better to sift after grind beans to remove "silver skin meal" before pour hot water.


Talking about Scandinavian roasting, Ritual Coffee carries highly edgy ones, "accelerated" raw beans flavors.  Sightglass is lighter roasting but not "Scandinavian" enough compared with Ritual.  U.S. "specialty" coffee has benefit of a bigger capacity and higher capability roasting machines: however, this lighter roasting movements may be the back way to minimize the benefits since lighter roasting technique are developed for/with small-batch machines w/ limited land benefit.       

Loma Grande

Beans: Loma Grande
Roaster: Akai-mi Coffee
Roasting Degree: Medium
Region: Sotará, Cauca, Colombia
Varietal: Caturra, Castillo
Grade: N/A (Auction Lot)
Altitude: 1,770m
Processing: Wet-Process 

※14th place, COE Columbia 2013

【Impression】
Medium light to Medium, nutty, fruity aroma as white grape, almond flower, high tone roasted nuts, hazel nuts, Brazil nuts, mild, mellow, soft, clear sweetness followed by crispy bitterness as 98% Lindts' dark chocolate, thick and full layered bitterness, mild and gradual sweetness as grain syrup, malts syrup, a touch of soothing citric sourness, syrupy almonds sweetness as a long lasting aftertaste.      

【Note】
Castillo is only the latest and greatest effort taken by Colombian traditional coffee research.  Crossbred Variedad Colombia with Robusta, Columbia created the new varietal, Castillo, which is remarkably tolerant for Rust disease, Hemileia vastatrix.  Nowadays, it is said that Castillo is the most popular varietal in columbia.  Some says Castillo has less flavor and aroma; however, this varietal is now mixed COE winning lots.  Originally, Variedad Colombia is a hybrid of Catimor and Arabica, and Catimor is Arabica and Canephora.
Thinking back, Variedad Colombia was poorly evaluated when that came into the market, so was Catimor.  Castillo may win the same popularity as they did in the future.

Coffee does not depend on only Variety.  It gives amazing flavor only when the long chain of Farmer, Buyer, Roaster, and Barista connected perfectly.   

Colombia

Beans: Colombia
Roaster: Anada Coffee
Roasting degree: Medium


【Impression】
Medium light to Medium, nutty, well-balanced, light texture, sweet aroma, roasted azduki beans, almonds, cashews, mellow, juicy sweetness followed by a tint of bitterness, mouthful fruity sweetness, thin layer of fresh plum, peach, caramel, green grapes, soothing bitterness and brief citric acidity, lime, white grapefruit, refreshing, juiciness as a long lasting after taste.
A wonderful cup served w/o milk and sugar. 

【Note】
Mr. Anada's recommendation at the time. This may be Andean Condor from Takengon Boyanaca.  Unfortunately, there were no specific information available besides country origin.  "Tampopo", the cafe managed by Mr. Anada, has been there for 39yrs as a nice neighbor food coffee shop, so it might be the reason there are no specific beans' information listed.  However, Mr. Anada, the owner/master roaster, often travels to coffee estates around the world and pours cups with highly selected beans.    

       

 

Colombia Maragogipe

Beans: Colombia Maragogipe
Roaster: Kashu
Roasting Grade: Full city

Here is my favorite coffee from daily, friendly choices.

Is this specialty coffee?  Is this single origin??  Is this from COE winning farm?

I do not know and I do not bother to ask those questions, because I know how good they are.

They select wonderful beans, so called “premium beans”, all over the world and always offer freshly roasted.  They also carry 2 to 3 seasonal offer of single beans, together with their regular selections, both blends and single beans.  Maragogipe is one of regular selections, which has clear fine taste with light silky body, and dark cacao like bitterness/sweetness with a touch of yuzu-citrus like sourness. 

Maragogipe, also called "elephant bean", is a variety of Arabica which produces extreme large size beans.  As picture shown, Maragogipe has almost three times bigger than usual coffee beans, but has rich and dense flavor.  Due to the size, roasting is often "challenge" for the roasters.  Flavor of coffee always depends on roasting and this beans show it more obvious.  If your favorite roaster has Maragogipe, maybe it is the one to try.    

Esmeralda gigante

Beans: Esmeralda Gigante 
Area:  Gigante, Huila
Country: Colombia

Roaster: Hiroshi Doi
               (Offered as Roaster's Selection in May, 2011) 
Roasting Degree: City


Tasting:

Aroma 3

Richness 5

Sourness 3

Bitterness 4

Sweetness 1

(Grade 0 to 5)

 Grown in Gigante, Huila, where is well known high quality coffee cultivation.
In this area, traditional cultivation has been carried by many micro farmers, planting various trees to harmonize with ecological scheme, using Banana trees for shade-grrown. 


Roasters Comment: 
Berry and citrus flavor.  Deep and well developed richness fully expresses Colombian uniqness and leaves calming and mild impression.

Impression:
Airy and lightly roasted almonds like aroma.  Light to Medium flavor, light bitterness cored with sweetness and aroma of raspberry, bitterness as a long lasting aftertaste.  Bitterness and sweetness harmonized in the best balance, which adds richness in flavor/body.   
Compared to typical Colombian, in my standard of "typical", this beans leaves milder but richer impression in the mouth.  Well developed bitterness stays on the throat with very soft and gentle impression as well.


Paper/Hand brew and served w/o milk & sugar may allow to enjoy   the best flavor of Colombia coffee!!

Colombia Andes Condor

Beans: Columbia Andean Condor
Roaster: Akai-mi Coffee
Roasting Degree: Medium
Area: Takengon Boyanaca, Colombia
Varieties: 100% Typica
Altitude: 1700m
Processing: Washed, 100% Sun-dried
                      Traditional Columbian fermentation process




【Impression】
Medium dark body, silky texture, thick layer of flavors, light fresh citrus aroma..
Clear but well balanced moderate flavor.   Dark chocolaty Cacao sweetness and bitterness as core flavor.  Light mild acidity of orange and juicy concord grapes,  bitterer caramel like heavy sweetness with reduced cane juice as bottom flavor, nutty sweetness and cacao bitterness as finish.  Short aftertaste with acidity left.  No outstanding character or uniqueness in flavor and aroma, but well matured and balanced in total.

【Note】
Andes Condor is very rare coffee beans to enjoy as single origin.  In recent years, Columbian traditional coffee trees have been overtaken, or replaced, by Variedad Colombia to combat blights.   Variedad Colombia is a hybrid of the Canephora (Robusta) and Arabica species developed by the Colombian Coffee Growers’ Federation with a federal support, which has disease resistance, precocious and high -yielding.

Against federal project, some farmers have chosen Typica, low-yielding with poor resistance to blights and requires a lot of labor: Andean Condor is one of them.  It has low-yielding, but entertain us with its unique and fascinating flavor.  
Andes Condor upholds Traditional Columbian fermentation process, using "fluid" remain in coffee cherries.  This method carries original rich flavor of cherries and add richness, sweetness and depth to coffee beans but requires high technique to control/to maintain fermentation process.

OLD Colombia

Beans: Old Columbia
Roaster:  Cocktail-Do

Area: Columbia
Varieties: 100% Arabica
Altitude:  1,100～1,800m
Amount of rainfall: 2,000～3,000mm
Average Temperature: 7～18℃

【Roaster's Comment】
Columbia often refer as synonymous with mild coffee.  Columbia is desirable beans for aging because of their full body flavor and aged Columbia enables to give variety of richness and sweetness in wide range of roasting degrees, from cinammon to dark roast.  Coktail-do often creates our blend coffee with Columbia as core flavor, sometimes using 2 different aging degree beans.

【Impression】

Medium body, mild texture, rather silky, citrus lemony aroma.  

Nutty flavor and delicate bitterness Flavor has less acidity.  Old Coffee, often refered as aged coffee, has less acidity than fresh beans as well as deeper in flavor.  Layer of bitterness gives depth in flavor and well matured aroma.

Talking about Aged or Old coffee, time and temperature do have strong impact on coffee flavor.  It is widely known fact so it has no need to be mentioned, but aging green beans is just like maturing wine.  Sourness literary changes, is sublimed to merged into rich flavor to harmonize bitterness/sweetness. 

Aged beans hide their capabilities, characteristics, potentials and so on until they came out of roasting machine.  Aged Beans sometimes ended up just like charcoal flavor if aging temperature is not appropriate.  There are a few coffee roaster can offer more than 10yrs wonderful aged coffee beans.
This roaster is not the one, but good enough to experience what aged coffees are.and to float the basis of an entrance for deeper coffee world.  

Colombia Santuario Typica

Beans: Columbia Santuario Typica 

Roaster Koruri Coffee 

Roasting grade: Medium dark

Estate: Finca Santuario

Owner：Camilo Merizalde-AgroSantuario

Geography：Cauca State-Cajibio Municipality, Columbia
Variety：Tipica 100%
Altitude: 1,850～2,100m

Processing Method：Free-washed, Sun Dried

Soil：Volcanic ashes

Sun Radiance：1.570hour/year

Rainfaii：2.200m

shade：80%

【Impression】 

    Medium to semi-dark body with dense but light texture.  Aromaful, spicy fruit flavor, comfrotable bitterness of dark chocolate, sweetness and shy acidity of matured green grapes, with clear aftertaste.  Food-pairing: Coconuts cookies or something coconutty taste sweets. 

【About this coffee farm】

    Finca Santuario is specially designed farm to grow single varieties from the beginning and offers wide varieties not only available in Columbia, such as Caturra and Catuai, but also very rare and sensational varietals such as Old Typica,and Original Bourbon from other regions.  The farm has became world-class coffee producers with outstanding quality, even located in the Popayan highlands, the heart of Cauca department. 

    In 1999, the owner of Finca Santuario, Mr. Camilo Merizalde, started very interesting project.  He started to resurrect good old Colombian Mild coffee over 30 years ago under completely sustainable conditions.  In 2005, the firm celebrated the first commercial harvest: 100% Typica.  Since 1999, Santuario Estate has planted not only specialty coffee but herbs and fruit trees and been working to make sustainable farm that is environmentally friendly through preserving the environment, beekeeping and ecotourism.

Labateca Typica

Beans: Lavateca Typica
Roasting degree: City
Roaster: Nama-mame hompo
Area of production: Labatica North Santander, Colombia
Grade: Spremo
Screen: 17up
Altitude: 1,500～1,800m
Processing: Fully washed
Species: Typica
Yr of cultivation: 2010

【Impression】 
Dark, full body and bitter but light and sharp.  Bitterness of coffee does not stay, whereas it gives strong impression and satisfaction at a first sip.  Nutty flavor together with sweetness in bottom. 
I recommend this as a first cup on fine spring or early summer morning.  Food pairing may be vegan homemade pancakes with a touch of maple sugar inside.
2nd Cup: Unlike the first impression, my second cup taste clear and light body, with depth of flavor consisted of layer of bitterness and a tip of sourness as tone.  But, still, this is good for a morning cup, from spring to summer.  

 【Note】
100% typica., traditional free-washed Colombian coffee.  It might sound strange but, since majority has shifted to mass-farming, this traditionally produced coffee became so called "SPECIALTY" coffee, which has lemony citrus and full nutty flavor with touch of sourness.  City roast is recommended.