Can Colombian Astrid Medina Single Origin Coffee Be Used for Pour-Over Brewing? - Pour-Over with Colombian Single Origin Beans

Coffee Beans from Astrid Medina's Farm in Finca Buenavista, Gaitania, Tolima, Colombia

Aroma/Flavor:

Peach, mango, sugar cane, honey, cherry pie, blueberries, raspberry, dark chocolate, ginger, purple grapes, caramel, Nutella, coffee blossom

Acidity:

Touch of salt, limey, citric, tartaric, complex, malic, raspberry

Other:

Fruit basket exploding in your mouth, creamy, lush body, very complex, fantastic long aftertaste, classic profile

Astrid Medina, 38, is a mother who takes care of her family and also the female owner of Finca Buenavista, dedicated to coffee management. In this competition her coffee won first place in Colombia with a high score of 90.2 points, thanks to its sweet fruit flavors, bright acidity and creamy, oily mouthfeel. She said, "Cup of Excellence allows us to keep dreaming and to experiment, because coffee, beyond doing the right thing, is like a mystery, since you may like it and others may not." Coffee is mysterious; you may like it while others may not, so beyond focusing on every step of the process you also have to go beyond what you do. She said Cup of Excellence lets them keep dreaming and experimenting. Astrid Medina will continue to invest the income from this auction into the farm, improving the production environment and updating the processing equipment, in hopes of producing more and better coffee beans in the future.

How to Brew Colombian Coffee [Astrid Medina] Well?

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-over Reference:

Measure 15 g of [Astrid Medina] coffee powder and grind it to a medium setting. The particles should be slightly coarser than table salt. We use a BG grinder setting 5R (standard sieve pass rate 60%), water at 89C and a V60 filter cup, with a recommended coffee-to-water ratio around 1:15.

Draw circles clockwise with the hot water from the pour-over kettle, centered on the middle of the filter cup, and start timing when brewing begins. Brew the coffee to 30 g in 15 seconds, then stop pouring. When the time reaches 1 minute, pour for the second time. The second pour works the same as before, drawing circles clockwise centered on the middle of the filter cup. The stream should not hit the area where the coffee powder meets the filter paper, to avoid channeling.

When you reach the outermost circle of the coffee bed, leave one ring of space, then brew circle by circle toward the middle. At 2 minutes 20 seconds, brew the coffee to 220 g, and the brewing is complete.

Japanese-style Ice Pour-over [Astrid Medina]

FrontStreet Coffee Ice Pour-over [Astrid Medina] Reference:

Colombian coffee [Astrid Medina], light-medium roast, BG grinder setting 5M (standard sieve pass rate 67%)

20 g powder, 150 g ice cubes, 150 g hot water. The water should be 1C higher than the normal pour-over recommendation of 90C. Normal grinding uses a Fuji 3.5 setting, while ice pour-over uses a slightly finer Fuji 3. The recommended coffee-to-(water + ice) ratio is 1:15.

Bloom with 40 g of water for 30 seconds.

Segmented pouring: a first segment of 60 g of water and a second segment of 40 g. Use a relatively fine but high water column, stirring forcefully so the coffee powder rolls fully, being careful that the liquid level does not get too high and does not hit the edge filter paper.

The entire extraction time is also about 2.5 minutes, similar to the normal extraction time for 20 g of powder.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Astrid Medina's lot is a creamy, fruit-driven Colombian cup, and FrontStreet Coffee's Colombia Frontera Estate Sidra shares that luscious, juice-heavy character. Grown at 1,650-1,800 meters and processed with a double anaerobic natural method, then roasted medium-light, it opens with jasmine and citrus in the dry aroma and pours out passion fruit, blueberry, grape and apricot layered over bright, soft acidity.

Because it holds up well under pressure, it also shines as a single-origin espresso; pulled as SOE or brewed as iced pour-over, it keeps a clean, smooth grape-juice quality.

For a rounder, lower-acid alternative, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Huila is roasted medium-dark and delivers dark chocolate and nutty sweetness with a full body, making it a good daily pour-over or French press bean.