Is Colombia's Santuario Estate Red Bourbon Washed Coffee a Love Potion or Poison?

Colombia Santuario Estate Love Potion

Cauca region, 1950-2050 meters, washed processing, Red Bourbon, light to medium roast

Fruit juice, orange, floral notes, apricot, red apple, honey, black tea

Flavor is balanced and elegant, with a clean and smooth mouthfeel, and a persistent floral and fruity aftertaste

Love Potion? Or Poison?

A few days ago, a bean called Love Potion landed on our table. Plenty of people asked me curiously what it tastes like. I told them: brew it well and it's a love potion; brew it poorly and it's poison. Let me introduce you to Colombia's coolest estate, Santuario.

Santuario is one of the standard-bearers of Colombian specialty coffee. The estate's owner, Camilo Merizalde, placed it in Cauca — my favorite Colombian region.

After studying cultivation in the United States, he brought that knowledge back to his native Colombia. In 2000, once he found a suitable environment,

he divided the estate into 266 micro-plots to make it easier to track and manage growing conditions and microclimate shifts.

Over the years the estate has grown to include many excellent varieties and has become a top pick for competitors in recent coffee competitions. So why is Love Potion called Love Potion? Because the batch from the year it was named carried rose floral notes, which earned it such a romantic name. This year's batch has softer florals but an intense sweet-and-sour sensation like plums — much like the feelings we have in love.

One customer said: "Just hearing the name is so healing!"

Another said: "This is love!"

And someone else said: "This should be released on Valentine's Day!"

Come and taste the sweet and sour of love together—

How to Brew Colombian Coffee [Love Potion] Well?

FrontStreet Coffee pour-over reference: Weigh 15g of [Love Potion] coffee and grind it medium. The particles should be slightly coarser than table salt. We use BG grinder setting 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate), water temperature 89°C, and a V60 dripper for extraction, at a recommended coffee-to-water ratio of around 1:15.

Using the hot water in the pour-over kettle, draw circles clockwise with the center of the dripper as your focal point. Start timing as soon as you begin brewing. Within 15 seconds, brew the coffee up to 30g, then stop pouring. When the clock reaches 1 minute, pour for the second time. During the second pour, just as before, draw circles clockwise around the center of the dripper. The water stream should not hit where the coffee meets the filter paper, or you will create channeling.

When you reach the outermost edge of the coffee bed, leave one circle, then brew circle by circle back toward the center. At 2 minutes and 20 seconds, the coffee should be brewed up to 220g, finishing the pour.

Japanese-style Ice Pour-over [Love Potion]

FrontStreet Coffee ice pour-over [Love Potion] reference:

Colombian coffee [Love Potion], light to medium roast, BG grinder setting 5M (67% standard sieve pass rate)

20g coffee, 150g ice cubes, 150g hot water. The water temperature should be 1°C higher than the normal 90°C recommended for pour-over. A normal grind is Fuji setting 3.5, while ice pour-over uses a slightly finer half a setting — Fuji setting 3. The recommended coffee-to-(water+ice) ratio is 1:15.

Bloom with 40g of water for 30 seconds.

Segmented pouring: a first segment of 60g of water, then a second segment of 40g. Use a relatively fine but high water column and stir forcefully so the coffee grounds roll fully, but be careful not to let the liquid level rise too high or to hit the filter paper at the edges.

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

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Colombia covers a wide range of styles — it works as a base for espresso blends and as a single-origin pour-over, with fruity-acidic profiles, full-bodied cups, and aroma-forward lots all in the mix. To get to know the country, start with FrontStreet's Washed Huila. Huila, in the southern Central Cordillera, is Colombia's best-known specialty region: a mountainous area ringed by peaks, planted above 1,500 meters, where the country's most important rivers converge and bring abundant water and humidity. Roasted medium-dark, it emphasizes bittersweet dark chocolate and nutty aromas, moderate oils, and a full body, and it shines as pour-over, French press, moka pot, or espresso machine — Americano and latte both included.

If you want to see where Colombia is heading, try FrontStreet's Finca La Divisa Sidra. Colombian coffee was once washed almost without exception, but recent years have brought a wave of experimental processing. Anaerobic fermentation — sometimes called carbonic maceration, though simply put it is fermentation in a low-oxygen or oxygen-free environment, usually in a pressure-resistant stainless steel tank where temperature, time, pH, and other variables can be controlled — is behind some of the most striking cups. FrontStreet's Sidra is an anaerobic natural: after oxygen-free fermentation it develops extra tropical-fruit aromatics, and at a medium-light roast it delivers complex notes of passion fruit, grape, apricot, and dried fruit whether you brew it as pour-over, cold brew, drip bag, or moka pot.

And if you have a home espresso machine or a moka pot, baristas strongly recommend FrontStreet's Specialty Blend. Built for cafés, it pairs the creamy, nutty sweetness of Brazilian coffee with the dark chocolate bittersweetness of Colombian coffee. Extraction shows fine golden crema, and it is wonderfully friendly to newcomers as a latte, with Americano, cappuccino, and mocha all easy bases to build on.