How to Brew Colombian Coffee Beans Introduction to Pour-Over Method Characteristics

FrontStreet Coffee Colombian Huila Coffee: Premium High-Altitude Excellence

Unlike the low-altitude soft beans represented by Brazilian coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian coffee is grown in high-altitude mountain regions. Coffee farmers carefully cultivate and hand-pick the production, while diverse microclimate characteristics give FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian coffee excellent qualities of sweetness within acidity and balanced bitterness. It is often used in specialty espresso blends. FrontStreet Coffee has 2 house-roasted FrontStreet Coffee espresso blend beans that contain Colombian coffee, and there are as many as 5 single-origin pour-over options.

Colombian Specialty Coffee Region - Huila

Colombian coffee growing areas are distributed across three continuous high mountains in the western Andes. Along these mountain highlands, the terraced slopes provide diverse climates, allowing coffee to be harvested year-round. Higher quality coffee producing areas are mainly concentrated in the southwest, with altitudes exceeding 1500 meters. The high altitude creates significant temperature differences, slowing the maturation time of coffee cherries, allowing ample time to absorb more nutritional essences and transform them into refined flavors.

Located in the southern part of the Central Mountain Range, Huila is one of Colombia's most important specialty coffee producing regions in recent years. Surrounded by diverse hills and mountainous terrain, the climate of the canyon slopes not only prevents cold winds from entering but also brings cool mountain breezes without high temperatures. The Magdalena River converges here, providing abundant water resources and water vapor, ensuring sufficient rainfall. Combined with the black soil provided by volcanic ash, the coffee produced here has both full nutty and chocolate aromas and bright, pleasant fruity acidity. Huila coffee is recognized as a representative product among Colombia's top specialty coffees for such refined flavors, so FrontStreet Coffee lists it as Colombia's signature representative, selected from the locally popular Caturra variety and processed using Colombia's traditional washed method.

Caturra Variety

Caturra is a natural mutation of the ancient Bourbon variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. The tree shape is relatively small with moderate disease resistance, but due to intensive planting capabilities and higher fruit-bearing rates, its yield exceeds varieties like Bourbon. Caturra is widely planted in Central American countries. Caturra has bright acidity, with fruit flavors filling the palate. After medium-dark roasting, it presents chocolate and nutty sweetness, making it a frequent champion in many coffee competitions. There are many coffee beans on FrontStreet Coffee's menu that contain the Caturra variety. If you want to understand the flavor characteristics of this variety, FrontStreet Coffee recommends FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian daily bean, which is selected from washed processed Caturra variety with very high cleanliness.

Washed Processing

In recent years, specialty coffee has developed rapidly, and many Colombian estates have adopted novel green bean processing methods to pursue more specific flavor expressions. However, if you want to understand the regional characteristics of Colombian coffee, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with natural processing methods, namely washed and natural. Among these, the washed processing steps not only reduce the defect rate, but also clean the mucilage layer before drying. The beans are not overly decorated, best presenting the coffee's own aroma. This is also why most of FrontStreet Coffee's daily beans use washed processing.

In the Huila region, each mature coffee cherry is carefully hand-selected by local harvesters, ushering in subsequent processing. The processing is extremely traditional and authentic. Fresh coffee cherries undergo flotation to remove insufficiently ripe raw fruits, then the pulp is removed using a pulper. Next, the slippery beans are poured into fermentation tanks for 16-36 hours, during which microorganisms decompose the mucilage layer. After fermentation is complete, large amounts of clean water are used to wash away mucilage residues from the coffee beans. Finally, the washed coffee beans are dried in the sun.

FrontStreet Coffee Colombian Huila Pour-Over Recommendations

The washed FrontStreet Coffee Huila daily beans have both soft acidity and appropriate body with sweet aftertaste. FrontStreet Coffee hopes to present classic Colombian nutty notes while retaining some acidity, choosing a medium-dark roast. Before FrontStreet Coffee launches each coffee bean, it undergoes at least one cupping evaluation. Cupping allows us to more objectively reflect the coffee's strengths and weaknesses.

FrontStreet Coffee's flavor descriptions for each cupped coffee are based on freshly roasted beans. If coffee beans are stored for more than a month, some aroma may have been lost, making it difficult to restore during brewing. FrontStreet Coffee also deeply understands the importance of freshness, so it ensures only coffee beans roasted within 5 days are shipped, allowing everyone to enjoy the most complete flavor period upon receipt.

Considering that FrontStreet Coffee's Huila daily beans use medium-dark roasting, with flavors leaning toward nutty, chocolate-rich, and full-bodied notes, the deeper roasting makes the coffee beans more porous, and the coffee powder has stronger water absorption. To avoid extracting too many unpleasant flavors, FrontStreet Coffee chooses medium grind size. For temperature, FrontStreet Coffee will slightly lower the water temperature to avoid excessive bitterness in medium-dark roasted coffee, paired with a KONO dripper for extraction.

Unlike the V60 dripper, the KONO dripper's only exhaust area is the quarter-rib design. When the water level passes the rib area, the water level in the dripper continuously rises, increasing pressure through the weight of the water. Since the outlet is relatively small, it can extend the contact time between coffee particles and water, effectively extracting soluble substances as water flows, thereby enhancing the coffee's rich and full-bodied texture, suitable for brewing FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling and other medium-dark roasted coffee beans.

Brewing Parameters

KONO dripper, 90°C water temperature, #20 standard sieve with 75% pass-through rate grind size, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, coffee amount: 15g, three-stage extraction

Paired with three-stage extraction, the ground coffee is poured into the filter paper, starting from the center with 30g water for 30-second bloom. Note to use a small water flow throughout, moving steadily from inside to outside in circular motions. In the second stage, inject 95g water, and when the coffee liquid has almost finished flowing, begin the third stage injection of 100g, until all coffee has filtered through, then remove the dripper. The time is approximately 2 minutes, with about 10 seconds margin for error.

This FrontStreet Coffee Colombian Huila daily bean has distinct roasted aromas of chocolate, nuts, and caramel upon entry. It's smooth and sweet, with moderate body and clean taste. As the temperature decreases, you can experience pleasant, soft acidity.

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473