Puerto Rico Yauco Town San Pedro Region Resting Process | Flavor and Brewing of Special AA Washed Beans?

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Puerto Rico Yauco Selecto AA Resting Process | Premium AA Washed Bean Flavor and Brewing

Puerto Rico is an autonomous territory of the United States in the Caribbean region, with its capital at San Juan. In Spanish, Puerto Rico means "rich port." Puerto Rico's coffee history can be traced back to 1736, when early Spanish immigrants brought coffee seedlings. In the eighteenth century, coffee was not valued because the main economic crop was sugarcane. In the early nineteenth century, due to political factors in Europe, the French began immigrating to Puerto Rico from the Mediterranean island of Corsica. Due to exclusion by the Spanish, many French people settled in Yauco in the southwest.

The geographical environment of Yauco consists mostly of hilly terrain, so the French decided to plant coffee. After half a century of hard cultivation, the quality was recognized by the market, which also established the future position of Yauco Selecto coffee in the market. All coffee in this country is carefully cultivated, and the premium coffee is Yauco Selecto, where "Selecto" means "selected." Yauco Selecto coffee is only grown on three farms in the southwestern part of the island (San Pedro, Caracolillo, and La Juanita), with a rich and intense flavor, long-lasting aftertaste, and an aroma that can compete with other excellent coffee varieties in the world.

The mountainous climate here is mild, giving plants a longer maturation period (from October to February of the following year), and the soil is high-quality clay. The people here have always adopted an ecologically protective, meticulously cultivated planting method, picking only fully ripe coffee beans, and then placing them in drum devices for washing for 48 hours. Yauco Selecto coffee beans are always stored with parchment until shipment, when the outer skin is removed to ensure coffee freshness. When goods are submitted, relevant government practitioners such as FDA and USEA will also be present, and their work is to supervise whether producers comply with federal regulations. There are also practitioners from local evaluation committees who take one bag as a sample from every 50 bags and use international measuring instruments to evaluate their quality.

Yauco Selecto AA beans are rested for 60 days after drying and processing (with parchment) before export, so the maturity of the flavor will be even better. Premium beans that came in this time also include the Nicaraguan Monimbo estate beans that made a splash in the 2002 coffee competition, PNG Sigri AA, and the rare Sigri PB (do you remember when I got the PB sample in Seattle?). These beans will be cupped and put on shelves successively.

The main coffee-producing areas in the Caribbean were hit by multiple hurricanes in 2004, so coffee harvests were affected, leading to insufficient supply. Yauco Selecto produces less than 15 containers per year. Therefore, some defective beans can be found in this year's green beans. Looking at the Yauco that arrived on June 1st, although it's AA grade, the inspection results show about one defect per 350 grams of green beans. At this year's Seattle SCAA exhibition, there were fewer participating companies from this region than in previous years, also a result of hurricane damage. The green beans of this batch of Yauco are not of the Bourbon variety but rather Porto Rico varieties, with an appearance quite similar to the traditional Typica variety. If you have Yauco Selecto beans from previous years, you might compare them, as there will be obvious differences in the appearance of the green beans. In cupping, it still presents the typical "Yauco style."

Cupping Notes:

Region: Yauco town, Puerto Rico (mountainous area in southwestern Puerto Rico)

Estate: San Pedro, Santa Ana

Grade: AA

Variety: Porto Rico varieties (no new commercial varieties used)

Processing: Washed method

Dry Aroma: Oily aroma, stone fruit fragrance, spicy sweetness, with floral and lemon balm notes

Wet Aroma: Milky sweetness, tea fragrance, stone fruit flavor, citrus sweetness, caramel sweetness

Slurp: Cocoa sweetness, very oily and thick body, citrus and other fruit sweetness, long-lasting caramel aroma

Cupping (2): Medium Roast

Dry Aroma: Nutty sweetness, fruity sweetness, spicy sweet fragrance, oily flavor, minty cool aroma

Wet Aroma: Creamy sweet fragrance, cocoa nutty sweetness, some floral tea fragrance, spicy sweetness

Slurp Flavor: Creamy oily body, ripe sweet and sour citrus flavor, cocoa chocolate flavor, very long-lasting nasal aroma

Yauco Selecto AA is a premium coffee located on the island of Puerto Rico, translated in Chinese as Yauco Selecto, and is a renowned island coffee, on par with Hawaiian Kona coffee and other fine beans from the Caribbean.

Puerto Rico means "rich port" in Spanish, and coffee was introduced to Puerto Rico over 250 years ago, beginning in 1736 when Spain began colonization and coffee cultivation. By the 19th century, coffee had become the second largest industry on the island. In the early 19th century, immigrants from the French island of Corsica were forced to designate cultivation in the high mountain areas of the southwest, and they decided coffee as the main crop. These cultivation areas were mainly centered around a town called Yauco. In 1860, two major events established the status of Yauco Selecto beans:

First: The Mariani family first used a cotton gin machine for sieving cotton fibers to remove the outer shell of coffee cherries, which had a revolutionary impact.

Second: The leader of the Corsican growers financially supported the beans in this region, shipping them back to major European coffee trading centers and recommending them to buyers, quickly gaining widespread response... Their hard work finally paid off.

In the 1860s, Puerto Rican coffee, especially that produced in the Yauco region, gained a reputation as premium coffee. Emperors and empresses from all over Europe regarded it as the finest of coffees! It was widely consumed by high society! Coffee-producing countries also competed to imitate Puerto Rico's cultivation methods. At that time, the island's production ranked 6th in the world! (In other words, gourmets in Europe were already enjoying specialty coffee a hundred years ago).

In 1898, two devastating hurricanes struck Puerto Rico. The hurricanes damaged the coffee industry, and the great war between the United States and Spain also began in the same year. After the war, the island, along with the Philippines and Cuba, became a U.S. territory. Once again, the U.S. government was only interested in the sugar industry (like Spain at the time)... The double blow was that European countries no longer considered Puerto Rican coffee as a colonial product. Fortunately, in the first half of the 20th century, Cuba, an emerging market, purchased most of Puerto Rico's coffee, but Yauco Selecto continued to be exported to Europe to supply some gourmets.

In 1917, the people of Puerto Rico became U.S. citizens, which meant people enjoyed minimum wage protection and also meant that coffee cultivation costs were as expensive as Hawaii's Kona region! Puerto Rico's labor costs must comply with U.S. government standards, and the coffee cultivation environment must also comply with U.S. environmental policies, which actually increased many production costs in Puerto Rico! Under the rising cost structure, the factors supporting the Puerto Rican coffee industry include:

(1) Because the island produces high-quality coffee! Under a free economic system, if the quality is poor and not competitive, the island market can simply buy imported coffee; and exporting poor quality to other countries would be even more difficult.

(2) Government protection and care, because it is a traditional, high-quality agricultural product, government policies also encourage and assist in continued coffee cultivation.

(3) Support from island residents, due to increased national income and developed tourism industry, between 1965-1990, all coffee produced on the island was fully consumed domestically...

The reasons why Yauco Selecto beans are superior to other producing areas on the island include:

1. Planted in the highest altitude mountainous areas of the island, resulting in slow growth and rich fruit flavors.

2. Only using Bourbon and old varieties from the island. Although yields are lower, in the Yauco mountainous area, old varieties do not have the flavor deficiency problem that new commercial varieties have.

3. Abundant rainfall, fertile soil, and location in the island's best high-altitude microclimate zone.

4. Two estates meticulously control the entire process from planting coffee seedlings to post-harvest processing, with very strict quality control.

Yauco Selecto has the characteristics of complete flavor, rich and intense aroma, distinct layers, delicate sweetness, and long-lasting aftertaste, presenting the characteristics that specialty coffee should have, with a memorable finish. Annual production is small, making it a must-try coffee for coffee connoisseurs.

Product Name: Puerto Rico Yauco Selecto AA

Origin: Puerto Rico

Green Bean Processing: Washed

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5

Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g coffee grounds. First infusion with 25g water for 25s bloom. Second infusion to 120g water, then stop. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway, then continue infusing slowly until 225g water. Extraction time around 2:00.

Analysis: Using a three-stage brewing method to clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. Because V60 has many ribs and drains faster, stopping the water flow can extend the extraction time.

Important Notice :

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