Colombia Huila Region Coffee Bean Flavor Profile Characteristics and Pour Over Water Temperature Guide

Discover FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian Bean Collection

If you want to try more coffee beans from different origins, FrontStreet Coffee recommends visiting their physical store or browsing FrontStreet Coffee's Taobao selection to pick some coffee beans you haven't tried before. If you've visited FrontStreet Coffee's physical store, you'll notice that FrontStreet Coffee's ordering method is quite traditional. Above the counter, you can see an extensive coffee bean menu covering different coffee regions from five continents. Every coffee bean at FrontStreet Coffee is carefully selected, each representing either classic regional flavors or pioneering coffee beans.

As we all know, Colombia is one of the representative coffee-producing regions in the Americas. What Colombian coffee beans has FrontStreet Coffee introduced? Looking closely at FrontStreet Coffee's bean menu, there are currently five Colombian beans: Rose Valley, Flower Moon Night, Cherry Blossom, Hanami, and of course, a coffee bean from Colombian Huila (not listed on the bean menu because it's part of the daily bean series). In the following article, FrontStreet Coffee will take you to explore the stories behind Colombian coffee beans and why these beans have become classics.

Colombian Coffee Heritage

To fully understand coffee beans from a region, FrontStreet Coffee believes we should explore their origins. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee will start with Colombian coffee history to better present its background comprehensively. FrontStreet Coffee has researched and learned that Colombia's coffee cultivation history can be traced back to the Spanish colonial era in the 16th century. Therefore, there are several accounts about coffee's cultivation history in Colombia:

First: It is said that coffee was introduced by sea from Haiti Island in the Caribbean Sea, via El Salvador in Central America.

Second: In 1808, a priest introduced coffee beans to Colombia for the first time from the French Antilles via Venezuela. One account suggests that Colombia's first coffee seeds entered through Santander Province from Venezuela.

Third: The earliest record of Colombian coffee cultivation appears in Spanish missionary Jose Gumilla's book "The Illustrated Orinoca." He described his experiences while preaching along both banks of the Meta River in 1730, mentioning local coffee plantations. By 1787, other missionaries had spread coffee to other parts of Colombia.

Therefore, we can see that Colombian coffee cultivation history is quite ancient. However, Colombian coffee's fame isn't just due to its long cultivation history and seniority. To establish itself in the international coffee market and become world-renowned, excellent coffee growing conditions are essential. If you know your geography well, you'll know that Colombia is entirely tropical. The southern part of the eastern plains and the Pacific coast have a tropical rainforest climate, while the northwest has a tropical savanna climate. Average annual temperature: 15.8 - 20.5°C. The average temperature in coffee regions can even reach between 18°C-22.5°C. Additionally, Colombia is a mountainous country, with three major mountains forming parallel arrangements in coffee-growing areas. The mountainous terrain has created numerous microclimates in Colombian coffee-growing regions, resulting in more distinctive local coffee flavors. Moreover, Colombia has more than a dozen volcanoes. From this perspective, Colombia covers nearly all ideal conditions for coffee cultivation: high altitude, rich volcanic soil, and tropical climate.

Experienced coffee enthusiasts know that single-origin coffee beans should be grown at higher altitudes, but frost must also be considered. However, the high temperatures near the equator prevent frost in high-altitude mountainous areas, providing excellent growing conditions for Colombian coffee cultivation. Secondly, Arabica coffee trees typically bear fruit only once a year, but thanks to the region's geography and climate, some coffee trees in Colombia can bear fruit twice a year, directly making Colombia the world's third-largest coffee exporter and producer. FrontStreet Coffee believes these are also reasons why Colombian coffee beans have developed to such perfection today.

Exploring Colombian Coffee Regions

Typically, at this point, FrontStreet Coffee would introduce Colombian coffee regions. However, this time FrontStreet Coffee wants to take a different approach, combining several of FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian coffee beans to introduce you to several famous Colombian coffee regions.

Actually, through the coffee cultivation map above, you can see that Colombian coffee regions are mainly concentrated in the south, with average altitudes above 1500 meters. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will first discuss the Colombian Huila coffee bean. As mentioned earlier, FrontStreet Coffee didn't list it on the store's coffee bean menu because it represents daily beans, positioned differently from the single-origin coffees on the bean menu. FrontStreet Coffee's daily beans are economical and offer great value. While their flavor may not match that of beans from renowned estates on the bean menu, daily beans allow coffee beginners to experience classic flavors from the most regions at the lowest price, building their own understanding of regional flavor profiles.

Colombia Huila

Region: Huila

Altitude: 1500-1800 meters

Variety: Caturra

Processing: Washed

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

You could say Huila is the most famous specialty coffee region in Colombia. This area consists of hills surrounded by mountains, with altitudes above 1500 meters. Additionally, Colombia's most important rivers converge here, bringing abundant water resources and moisture. This coffee bean uses Colombia's most traditional washed processing method, resulting in clean and bright flavors that best represent the original taste of coffee. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee often says that washed coffee bean flavors are the guiding light for understanding a region's flavor characteristics. If you want to understand the flavor characteristics of Colombian Huila coffee beans, you might want to try this coffee bean.

Contrary to coffee enthusiasts' impression of Colombian coffee as balanced and smooth, many small-farm micro-batch Colombian specialty coffees actually have distinct regional flavor characteristics. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Moon Night and Hanami are both from the Huila region, but their flavor expressions are completely different.

Colombia Flower Moon Night

Country: Colombia

Region: Huila (El Acevedo Garden Farm)

Altitude: 1800m

Variety: Caturra

Processing: Anaerobic Natural

Flavor: Strawberry, honey peach, fermented wine aroma, chocolate, fruit wine

Have you noticed? Both are Caturra coffee beans from Colombia's Huila region, yet their flavors differ dramatically. FrontStreet Coffee believes this is mainly related to microclimate and processing methods. Flower Moon Night is an anaerobic natural coffee bean developed by farm owner Ramirez of El Acevedo Garden Farm. According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, he comes from a coffee-growing family and started working in coffee production at age 18. He previously worked in coffee-related positions in the city of Acevedo before having the opportunity to purchase this farm called El Acevedo Garden.

As early as three years ago, Ramirez planned to launch a special processing project. He places coffee cherries in sealed fermentation tanks and uses low-temperature fermentation to extend the entire fermentation time. Using 15-20 days of fermentation allows for more flavor possibilities in the coffee. Under the nurturing of time, slow drying allows coffee cherries to develop optimal water activity during this process. This not only results in better flavor development but also allows green beans to maintain longer storage during seasonal cycles. After fermentation, these coffee cherries undergo natural drying processing. This processing method is what FrontStreet Coffee now calls anaerobic natural processing. The result is a coffee bean with richer layering and fermented aromas, more like drinking a floral fruit wine.

In comparison, the washed Hanami coffee bean's flavor will be more refined and clean. This is a Geisha blend coffee bean with very special flavors. FrontStreet Coffee believes its flavor naturally carries Southeast Asian cuisine characteristics. You can detect various spice aromas in the dry fragrance of this coffee, while it also has a subtle chamomile flower aroma. As for the flavor, FrontStreet Coffee finds it leans toward wo citrus and sweet orange, with a cooling mint sensation in the aftertaste.

Colombia Hanami

Region: Huila

Estate: Montblanc Estate

Altitude: 1900 meters

Variety: Geisha, Caturra, Catuai

Processing: Washed

Flavor: Pink pepper, chamomile, wo citrus, honey, almond

This coffee often causes misunderstanding among FrontStreet Coffee's customers, with some questioning why FrontStreet Coffee sells blended coffee alongside single-origin coffee. FrontStreet Coffee believes it's necessary to explain this to everyone. Looking at this coffee's information summary, you can see that this coffee bean consists of three varieties: Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai. Because it's a mixture of three beans, to prevent everyone from thinking it's pure Geisha, FrontStreet Coffee has clearly indicated that this is a blended coffee. However, if everyone understands the meaning of single-origin coffee as "coffee from a single origin," then you'll know that Hanami is genuinely a single-origin coffee. It's just that Montblanc Estate doesn't separate their coffee cultivation very finely, mixing Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai during harvest, resulting in this phenomenon.

Colombian coffee beans with fermented aromas aren't limited to Flower Moon Night. FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian San Jose Estate coffee bean has even more prominent fermented aromas. The reason is quite simple - it comes from its special refined washed rum barrel fermentation processing method. The owner of San Jose Estate can be considered the pioneer of rum barrel fermentation processing. According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, she is the third-generation female owner of San Jose Estate. Because she is dedicated to promoting Colombian coffee, she has broken through traditional production and modern specialty coffee trends, experimenting with different paths.

Colombia San Jose Estate

Country: Colombia

Region: Caldas

Altitude: 1750m

Variety: Castillo

Processing: Refined Washed Rum Barrel Fermentation

Flavor: Rum, liqueur chocolate, tropical fruits, maple syrup

While innovating, the third-generation owner of San Jose Estate had a sudden inspiration while brewing rum with her husband. She wondered if putting green coffee beans in oak barrels would, like the original liquor, absorb oak barrel flavors and achieve barrel-aged effects? Under this concept, owner Monsalve Botero began in 2013 to place green beans in rum barrels of different ages for brewing-style low-temperature fermentation, comparing fermented flavors from different brewing times. Through such experiments, she selected the most suitable barrels and fermentation duration. Finally, she successfully found the ideal combination, achieving special and satisfactory flavors, thus creating rum barrel fermented coffee that differs from traditional washed processing.

In addition to innovative processing methods, Caldas's regional advantages are also quite obvious. Parts of Caldas are located in Colombia's coffee growing axis, Eje Cafetero, which is Colombia's first major coffee-producing region. For many years, this region has been Colombia's most famous and popular coffee-producing area. Its tropical rainforest, volcanic soil, and abundant water resources make this region an ideal coffee-growing area.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that a coffee bean's flavor expression depends not only on its regional geographical conditions but also has much to do with its coffee variety. The coffee beans introduced earlier are basically Caturra and Catuai, while this San Jose coffee bean is actually Castillo. Are you not familiar with this coffee variety? Next, FrontStreet Coffee will briefly introduce this special Colombian coffee variety.

Castillo is a new-generation leaf rust-resistant coffee variety jointly developed by the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) and Colombia's National Coffee Research Center, Cenicafé. Cenicafé hopes to further improve varieties to achieve higher coffee yields, greater resistance, and quality and flavor comparable to Caturra.

After 23 years of research and experimentation, Cenicafé developed the fifth-generation Castillo, which was officially promoted for commercial cultivation in 2005. Castillo is known for its smoothness, aroma, and citrus acidity. According to blind test results from Colombia's National Coffee Research Center, Castillo's flavor quality can match that of Caturra and Bourbon.

Another of FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian coffee beans is also a Castillo variety - the Paradise Estate's Cherry Blossom coffee. This coffee bean uses double bright sun washed processing, presenting quality aromas of mugwort, mint, and eucalyptus, with flavors leaning toward berries and strawberry candy.

Finally, there's only one coffee bean left - Rose Valley from Big Tree Estate in Colombia's Santander region. According to reports, farm owner Vargas has been growing coffee at Big Tree Farm for 20 years. At Big Tree Farm, only fully mature, bright red coffee cherries are selected for picking. Defective floating beans are removed through washing, followed by double anaerobic fermentation and fermentation with special enzyme groups. Meanwhile, the farm owner also pays great attention to the coffee bean drying process, avoiding excessively high temperatures and adopting slow drying methods. This is the double enzyme anaerobic processing method mentioned by FrontStreet Coffee above.

Colombia Rose Valley

Country: Colombia

Region: Santander (Big Tree Estate)

Altitude: 1700m

Variety: Caturra

Processing: Anaerobic Double Enzyme Washed Processing

Flavor: Honey, juicy texture, strawberry

Brewing Guide

The above is the knowledge about Colombian coffee beans compiled by FrontStreet Coffee. If you ask which coffee bean best represents Colombian original regional coffee flavors, FrontStreet Coffee believes that washed processed coffee beans are the best representation. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share brewing parameters for Colombian Huila coffee beans. For standardized production, FrontStreet Coffee's coffee brewing uses three-stage extraction. However, in some small details, to make coffee brewing better, FrontStreet Coffee will change relevant parameters according to coffee beans. For example, Rose Valley and Flower Moon Night both use EK43s 10.5 grind size, but due to different altitudes and regions, the bean density will also have certain changes. Therefore, their sieving rate will also vary slightly.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Parameters:

V60 Dripper
Water Temperature: 91°C
Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15
Coffee amount: 15g
Grind size: (China #20 standard sieve 80% pass rate)

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Method:

Use 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds. Pour with small water flow in circles to 125g, then segment. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the filter cup. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time: 2'00".

FrontStreet Coffee Colombian Huila Coffee Bean Flavor Description:

Overall quite balanced, with noticeable sweetness. Initial taste reveals dark chocolate, nuts, and caramel, with soft fruit acidity as temperature changes.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473