With this delivery we’re enjoying another Colombian micro lot, this time from the farm Miro Lindo, and grown by María Del Rosario Olaya.
María washed the crop of caturra beans for eighteen hours before drying them on raised beds for around twenty days.
In many ways, this coffee has a similar story to that of Cesar Aroca: it’s from Colombia’s Tolima region; comes from the Coagrivida cooperative; and is from a similar altitude and approach to farming.
This story in Forbes, while focused on the Cauca region (south-west of Tolima) still covers plenty of great background on the challenges (and recent success) of Colombian specialty coffee growing.
Temperature and flavour
All coffees change in flavour profile as they cool down, but we’ve found this one’s range is particularly interesting.
When tasted hot, there’s big tropical flavours of green grape and guava. Then as it cools, we’ve noticed the flavours shifted towards butterscotch.
With temperatures at either extreme of hot or cold, your taste buds are less able to detect flavour, so it’s always interesting to taste your coffee as it cools (or try tasting gelato as it warms).
There’s some more discussion of temperature and flavour in the comments of James Hoffmann’s blog and also his original post.
The Guardian also has an interesting story on serving temperature and the flavour of food.
Coffee farming in Planadas, Tolima
Planadas, the town where the Coagravida cooperative is based, is shown in the photo for this coffee.
Planadas is the southernmost municipality of Tolima. It sits in the eastern slopes of Colombia’s central cordillera, above the Magdalena River Valley, and boasts average temperatures of 20ºC.
Much of the coffee farming in this area takes place in partial shade, often provided by güamo (ice cream bean), nogal cafetero (Spanish Elms) and cacao.
Planadas has found itself at the centre of ongoing civil unrest, with Colombian militant group FARC’s famed stronghold Las Hermosas nearby, Planadas is often unreachable to outsiders.
FARC were in the news again this week, as a planned peace deal with the Colombian government delayed another two weeks.
