How to Brew Colombian Tabo Estate Pour-Over Coffee and Best Practices for Preparation

FrontStreet Coffee Colombia Exploration: Washed

A rich, creamy body with citrus acidity, delivering a clean cup with brown-sugar sweetness. Notes of apple, citrus, caramel, Earl Grey tea, and subtle plum lead to a finish of fresh lemon acidity and a long, lingering aftertaste.

Colombia Best of Cauca Regional Select El Tambo

FrontStreet Coffee Colombia: Cauca Province, Best of Cauca, El Tambo micro-lot.

Flavor Description

The front notes reveal sweet, juicy black plum and dark-berry aromatics. The mid-palate is like drinking purple grape juice and mulberry juice, with a sweet-tart sensation dancing in the mouth. The finish carries the sweet fragrance of preserved fruit.

Cauca Region: Premium Coffee Growing Area

Cauca Province is one of Colombia's renowned specialty coffee regions, bordered by the Nariño region to the west and Huila to the east.

Coffee is cultivated across 29 administrative districts, spanning elevations from 1,758 to 2,100 metres above sea level.

Like other specialty coffee regions in southern Colombia, this area benefits from highly homogeneous conditions in terms of climate, rainy season, and volcanic soil. The consistent rainfall cycle, following a dry season from August to September, provides favourable conditions for the coffee trees to fruit.

High-intensity sunlight and low rainfall during the flowering season (July-August), when the region moves away from the equatorial calm zone, create ideal flowering conditions. These factors also contribute to concentrated first-season harvests the following year.

Compared with other Colombian coffee-growing areas, this region shows greater variation in daily temperatures: average daily lows can reach 11°C, with daytime averages of 18°C (nighttime averages of 4°C).

This dramatic diurnal temperature swing aids Cauca coffee development. The lower nighttime temperatures at high altitude slow bean maturation, enhancing acidity and imparting distinctive sweetness.

Sotara is a small town in central Cauca, and Sotara volcano belongs to the Andes mountain system, providing the nutrient-rich soil essential for coffee cultivation.

The coffee-growing area in this region spans approximately 911 hectares, consisting of mountainous terrain and three major rivers: the Caueta, Cauca, and Magdalena rivers.

FrontStreet Coffee Colombia Aroma Profile

Caramel, toffee, milk candy, almond, citrus, orange, grapefruit (round and sweet)

Colombian Coffee Industry Overview

Three Cordillera mountain ranges run north-south through Colombia, extending toward the Andes. Local coffee farmers cultivate the highlands along these ranges, benefiting from diverse climatic conditions. Because of the variation in altitude, Colombia's coffee industry largely operates on a small-scale farming model.

Unlike Central American producing countries that typically grade by growing altitude, Colombian coffee is classified by bean screen size, with Supremo grade (17 screen and above) being the largest, followed by EXCELSO EXTRA (primarily 16 screen).

Best of Cauca: Rising Star

In the coming years, Colombia's emergence as a standout coffee origin will become increasingly evident, particularly from the Cauca region and its Best of Cauca competition.

This competition features small-farmer lots exclusively, meaning every entry is a micro-lot.

The winning bids go directly into the pockets of small farmers.

Recommended Roast Level

Medium roast

How to Brew FrontStreet Coffee Colombia [FrontStreet Exploration Estate]

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-over Reference:

Weigh 15 g of FrontStreet Exploration Estate coffee beans and grind them medium; the particles should be slightly coarser than table salt. We use a BG grinder setting of 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate), water at 89°C, a V60 dripper, and a coffee-to-water ratio of about 1:15.

Pour hot water from the gooseneck kettle in clockwise circles starting from the centre of the filter. Start timing when you begin pouring, reaching 30 g in 15 seconds, then stop. At the 1-minute mark, begin the second pour. As with the first, move in clockwise circles from the centre, avoiding the area where the coffee bed meets the filter paper to prevent channelling.

Leave a small circle when pouring around the outermost edge of the bed, then continue spiralling toward the centre. At 2 minutes 20 seconds, you should reach 220 g, and the brew is complete.

Japanese-style Iced Pour-over [FrontStreet Exploration Estate]

FrontStreet Coffee Iced Pour-over [FrontStreet Exploration Estate] Reference:

FrontStreet Coffee Colombia [FrontStreet Exploration Estate], light-medium roast, BG grinder setting 5M (67% standard sieve pass rate)

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

Bloom with 40 g of water for 30 seconds.

Pour in stages: 60 g of water in the first stage, 40 g in the second. Use a thin but high water column and stir forcefully so the grounds roll thoroughly. Be careful not to let the liquid level get too high or touch the filter paper at the edges.

The entire extraction should take approximately 2.5 minutes (similar to the normal extraction time for 20 g of coffee).

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Colombia's versatility is exactly why FrontStreet keeps it at the centre of its lineup. FrontStreet's Colombia Huila, from the country's best-known specialty province, is grown above 1,500 metres and roasted medium-dark, giving dark chocolate and nutty sweetness with a moderate oil and a full body; it handles pour-over and French press as easily as moka pot and espresso machine.

For something bolder and more contemporary, FrontStreet's Sidra uses an anaerobic natural process, the low-oxygen fermentation drawing out tropical fruit, and at medium-light roast it offers passion fruit, grape, apricot, and dried-fruit depth in pour-over, cold brew, drip bags, and moka pot.

Home espresso drinkers can turn to FrontStreet's Specialty Espresso Blend, where Brazil's cream-and-nut character meets Colombia's dark-chocolate bitterness for a fine golden crema, ideal for a rich latte or as the base for Americanos, cappuccinos, and mochas.