Rainforest Alliance | USDA Certified | The Flavors of Valle del Cauca, Colombia

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Rainforest Alliance | USDA Certified | What is the Flavor of Colombia's Valle del Cauca?

Agricultural products certified by both Rainforest Alliance and USDA will bear certification logos on their packaging (U.S.D.A is the logo of the United States Department of Agriculture). Coffee produced in Colombia is the most widely sold among all coffees and the world's third-largest coffee producer. The most significant factor is that Colombian coffee's sweet, rich, and mellow taste is very appealing and it's a coffee that's very easy to brew successfully. At home, it's an afternoon tea beverage perfect for pairing with desserts and cakes. With Colombian coffee, you don't need to go to a café to enjoy the aromatic atmosphere that coffee brings at home. Whether it's pure black coffee or various coffee recipes made with Colombian coffee, both are excellent choices.

In recent years, coffee competitions have created incentives to increase coffee farmers' income, helping Colombian coffee break away from its old impression of being only suitable as a base coffee. Previously, coffee grading was judged by bean size, but in reality, this grading only represents the size of coffee beans and has nothing to do with quality. "Bigger beans are better" is an outdated grading system. Instead, coffee produced from small-yield farms or cooperatives that grow naturally in pristine rainforests without chemical fertilizers and pesticides yields coffee beans that are round, firm, hard, and smaller in a blue-green color. This is what truly excellent Colombian coffee is.

Colombia's Valle del Cauca province is a northwestern province bordering the Pacific Ocean, where coffee is grown on the Andes Mountains at an altitude of 1700 meters. This region was one of Colombia's earliest to join international coffee organizations, and various cooperatives had earlier concepts of fair trade and community responsibility. This batch of coffee beans from Valle del Cauca, introduced by SKN CARIBECAFE Coffee Company, is certified by both Rainforest Alliance (R.A.S) and USDA (U.S.I.D). It's harvested only once a year, with the harvest period from October to December, using the natural water-washed method to process coffee beans. The defective beans are manually screened at a ratio of about 7%, baked to light roast (City) with a coffee bean weight loss ratio of 14%, and empty shells and bad beans account for 2%.

The characteristics of excellent coffee beans from Colombia's northern Pacific-facing region: small particles (approximately 15-16 mesh), hard coffee with fresh tea aroma, rounded and sweet taste, and the sweetness of cocoa with blueberry has always been the wonderful impression that Colombian coffee brings to everyone.

Light Roast City (Fresh Aroma)

Because Valle del Cauca coffee grows in pristine rainforests, the beans grow more slowly and are firmer. In the light roast stage, we hope to preserve the fresh blueberry fruit aroma that differs from traditional Colombian coffee. Only coffee from northern Colombia has stronger, brighter, and cleaner acidity, which can best express Valle del Cauca's unique and distinctive style. After grinding, there's a grain aroma of wheat and rice straw. After brewing, it emits a special blueberry fruit aroma that cannot be found in other coffees. There's a bright dark plum acidity on both cheeks that quickly transitions from sour to sweet, with a clean, bright, and thin mouthfeel - this is the strong point of recent northern Colombian coffees. The aftertaste emits tea and wheat tea aroma. The overall style is close to Costa Rican coffee, but you can clearly discover the difference from the aroma. Perhaps it can be called the Colombian style.

Dark Roast (General C)

Colombian coffee in dark roast can present two flavors: 1. Maple-like smoothness primarily with sweetness 2. Caramel macchiato-like richness. Before roasting, you can outline in your mind the style you want to achieve.

The aroma of hazelnut and raisin, with toffee that shouldn't be too strong, creates a balanced mouthfeel with smoothness. Leaving the sweetness of cantaloupe to the end creates a wonderful fruity sweetness. Colombian's strong, overflowing hazelnut aroma is unique. The variations created by this roasting only differ in subtle details at the end. As you savor it slowly, you can feel these nuances.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing:

Filter cup: Hario V60

Water temperature: 90 degrees

Grind size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5

Brewing method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g of coffee, first pour with 25g of water, let it bloom for 25s, second pour to 120g then stop pouring, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring again, slowly pour until reaching 225g, extraction time around 2:00

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

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473