Recommended Colombian Coffee Bean Brands - The Balanced and Delightful Specialty of Huila Coffee

Colombia has no shortage of famous growing regions, but Huila stands out even among them. Its coffees carry nut, chocolate and caramel aromas with a gentle, well-judged acidity, and the area has become one of the country's defining sources of specialty coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee: An Introduction to Colombian Huila

Huila lies in the southwestern part of Colombia and is one of the nation's principal coffee areas. Because renowned growing zones are scattered across the department, the names of its small districts have taken on a life of their own and circulate as brands. Coffee from Huila, with its nutty, chocolate and caramel aromas and its well-proportioned acidity, deserves the premium specialty label.

The Sunflower Estate is not large. It is family-run, hand-picked and washed, and the owner gathers every scrap of removed fruit skin and residue to be treated as fertilizer, a practice that already meets organic certification requirements. To him the farm is not simply a business: it is his home, the place his family lives, and he looks after it accordingly.

Sunflower Estate Pink Bourbon

Country: Colombia

Region: Huila San Adolfo

Estate: Sunflower Estate

Variety: Pink Bourbon

Altitude: 1700 meters

Processing Method: Washed

Flavor: Jasmine, Thyme, Citrus, Chocolate

The story of Pink Bourbon is one we had already researched in depth as early as the beginning of 2017. The first Pink Bourbon was found in the Huila Palestine region of Colombia, a new variety that arose from a natural cross between Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon. Its girlish pink color is the expression of a recessive gene, and because that gene rarely shows under natural conditions, the variety is extraordinarily scarce, a kind of giant panda of the coffee world.

Knowledge Point

Colombia's coffee trees are grown mainly in the Andes, and the country has three Cordillera ranges running north to south that reach toward the great mountain chain.

Along these highland slopes, coffee is planted. The mountain terraces create a wide spread of climates, which lets coffee be harvested here without being tied to a single season.

FrontStreet Coffee's Mission

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall, glad to share coffee knowledge with everyone. We hold nothing back because we want more friends to fall in love with coffee, and we keep chasing down the lots worth pouring a cup of.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Huila is where Colombia's balance is easiest to see, and FrontStreet Colombia Huila comes from exactly that ground. Grown among the hills of the southern central Cordillera at altitudes of 1500 meters and above, where the country's most important rivers converge and carry both water and humid air through the valleys, it is washed and given a medium-dark roast. The result is a cup of black chocolate and nutty sweetness, a moderate oiliness and a full, rounded body, and it is flexible enough for a pour-over or a French press as well as a moka pot or an espresso machine, where it holds its own in an americano or a latte.

For a very different side of Colombia, FrontStreet Sidra from the Frontera Estate has become a favorite for its anaerobic natural process. In an oxygen-reduced tank the coffee transforms toward tropical fruit, and the medium-light roast keeps that brightness alive: passion fruit, grape, apricot and preserved fruit, dense and complex, and just as good as a cold brew, a drip bag or a moka pot. If you would rather have Colombia as the backbone of a milk drink, FrontStreet Specialty Espresso Blend pairs Brazilian cream and nut with Colombian dark chocolate and bitterness, pulling a fine golden crema and making an effortlessly smooth latte, as well as a solid base for an americano, a cappuccino or a mocha.