FrontStreet Coffee Bean Exploration: Special Report on Colombian Pink Bourbon

FrontStreet Coffee · Colombia · Pink Bourbon

Country: Colombia

Region: Cauca

Estate: Finca El Paraiso

Variety: Pink Bourbon

Processing: Washed

Altitude: 1930 meters

Colombia Cauca

Colombia is currently the world's third-largest coffee-producing country, surpassed only by Brazil and Vietnam. Commercial coffee cultivation began in the 1830s, and by the 20th century, coffee had become the largest export agricultural commodity. The country's mountainous terrain combined with diverse tropical microclimates provides ideal growing conditions. Seventy-five percent of total production is sold abroad, making it the most important source of foreign exchange income.

The main coffee-producing regions within Colombia include: Huila (San Augustin), Narino, Tolima, Popayan (Cauca), Valle de Cauca, Meta, Antioquia (Medellin), Magdelena (Sierra Nevada), Boyaca, and Santander (Bucaramanga).

Cauca is a region with coffee origin designation certification, with an average altitude of 1,758 meters, reaching up to 2,100 meters at its highest points. The region's topography, precipitation, temperature, and volcanic soil create suitable conditions for coffee growth. Eighty percent of the area is mountainous, with parallel mountain ranges in the eastern and central parts, forming part of the Andes mountain system. The central mountain range includes two main volcanoes, Sotara and Petacas. Similar to other southwestern regions, Cauca's precipitation shows a clear monomodal distribution, with the dry season primarily occurring from August to September each year. The subsequent rainy season brings concentrated coffee flowering, followed by a concentrated coffee harvest season in the following year.

Estate Introduction

Diego Bermudez is a young coffee producer from Bolivar, Cauca. In 2006, after completing his studies in agricultural business management, he began producing coffee. From the beginning, he decided to become a specialty coffee producer, applying all the knowledge he gained in university to coffee production. Since then, he has participated in various coffee quality competitions and achieved excellent results.

Finca El Paraiso has a mild, humid climate with frequent winds from the Pacific Ocean. These climatic conditions contribute to tropical fruit aromas in their coffee.

These coffee cherries mature very slowly and accumulate high sugar content, which significantly enhances the cup quality. At Finca El Paraiso, to maintain consistency in coffee quality, mechanical and sustainable methods are used to process coffee.

Processing Method

This FrontStreet Coffee Finca El Paraiso Pink Bourbon coffee bean uses the washed processing method.

Selecting coffee cherries —— Removing pulp —— Fermentation —— Washing —— Drying —— Hulling

The selected coffee cherries are placed in a pulping machine to initially remove their skin and pulp. The coffee beans with remaining pulp mucilage are placed in water to ferment for approximately 24 hours. After fermentation, the parchment coffee beans are placed in flowing water channels to wash away their pulp and mucilage. After washing, the coffee beans are dried in the sun or with drying machines until the moisture content reduces to around 12%. Finally, the parchment is removed from the green coffee beans.

Green Bean Analysis

Pink Bourbon, as the name suggests, has romantic pink coffee cherries when mature. It belongs to a very rare new variety, cultivated from hybridization between Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. The reason Pink Bourbon is considered rare is mainly because maintaining this beautiful pink color is extremely difficult. Sometimes orange Bourbon cherries are harvested, which occurs because the final color of coffee fruit is determined by recessive genes within the pollen grains. Among the selected pollen grains for hybridization, there are both yellow genes leaning toward Yellow Bourbon and red genes leaning toward Red Bourbon, all of which are recessive genes that can easily interfere with each other.

Observing the green beans, we can see they are oval-shaped with relatively large sizes, though not very uniform in size. The silver skin attached to the surface appears yellowish with some orange, while the bean color is bluish-green with gray. The aroma is grassy with subtle citrus notes.

Roasting Analysis

Roasting machine: Yangjia 800N (500g batch size)

Preheat the roaster to 165°C and charge the beans. Set the air damper to 3 and heat to 100. The turning point occurs at 1'35" when the temperature reaches 145°C, maintaining heat while opening the damper to 4. At this point, the bean surface turns yellow and grassy aromas completely disappear, entering the dehydration phase. At 166°C, reduce heat to 80, and at 176°C, reduce heat to 60 while keeping the damper unchanged.

At 7'50", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and the toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma. This can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 8'57", reduce heat to 40 and adjust the damper to 5 (adjust heat very carefully - don't reduce it so much that cracking stops). Develop for 2'05" after first crack and discharge at 195°C.

Agtron bean color value: 72.5 (left image), Agtron grounds color value: 76 (right image), Roast Delta value: 3.5.

Cupping notes: Citrus, cocoa, roasted almonds, caramel, licorice, lemon, fermented aroma, tea aroma, floral aroma

1. Flavor descriptions vary by individual and are influenced by water temperature and brewing methods. This cupping report provides descriptions limited by the flavor wheel under the same brewing equipment and parameters, intended for reference only.

2. Content will be updated promptly based on new information. The latest updates shall prevail.

Brewing Recommendations

Recommended brewing method: Pour-over

1. Filter: V60

2. Water temperature: 88-90°C

3. Grind size: Medium-fine (BG 5R: 58% pass rate through China standard #20 sieve), equivalent to granulated sugar

4. Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Extraction technique: Use 15g of coffee, bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds. When pouring to 118g, pause the pour. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 227g and stop. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed again, remove the filter cup. Total extraction time: 2 minutes.

[FrontStreet Coffee Colombia Finca El Paraiso Pink Bourbon]

Flavor: Overall relatively clean and balanced, feeling light and smooth, with flavors of peach, plum, grapefruit, cream, roasted almonds, and cocoa. The finish has persistent tea and floral aromas.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473