Colombia Palm Tree and Toucan Estate Coffee Beans Anaerobic Natural Process Brewing Flavor

The lactic-fermentation beans from La Palma & El Tucan, used by the 2019 WBC World Barista Championship Korean champion, kept showing up again in this year's WBrC World Brewers Cup competition. That led many people to assume the estate produces nothing but lactic-fermentation coffee. Last year FrontStreet Coffee followed the trend and bought their lactic-fermentation beans; this year FrontStreet Coffee acquired their anaerobic natural beans.

FrontStreet Coffee — La Palma & El Tucan Estate Coffee Beans

Region: Huila, Colombia

Estate: La Palma & El Tucan

Processing: Anaerobic Natural

Variety: Caturra

Altitude: 1800m

La Palma & El Tucan

Unlike traditional coffee producers, the estate's owners inherited no coffee farms from previous generations. Instead they searched from scratch for their ideal growing environment — what they call an Ecotopo: the right altitude, the right weather, appropriate sunlight and natural shade, good water sources, suitable temperatures, and dedicated growers in the region.

In 2011 the owners found that treasure land in the Cundinamarca region of Colombia's Eastern Andes, at an altitude of 1600-2200 meters. The area lies within Colombia's specialty coffee region of Huila, so the beans it produces are classed as Huila. Divided by the beautiful Apulo River, it benefits from Pacific monsoons and warm, humid air currents from the Amazon, creating complex and varied weather. That gives the coffee trees here a distinctive growing environment and makes the flavor of the beans exceptionally rich.

To protect the land's precious water, La Palma & El Tucan established a water-conservation project aimed at producing good coffee with minimal water use. As a result, all green-bean processing for the project takes place in the La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region.

Anaerobic Natural Processing

Anaerobic natural processing places freshly harvested cherries into sealed fermentation tanks for low-temperature fermentation, with the temperature held below 10-15 degrees Celsius. In an anaerobic environment, pectin sugars break down more slowly and pH falls more slowly too, which extends fermentation time and develops better sweetness and a more balanced flavor. After more than three days of anaerobic fermentation, the cherries in the tank go to sun-drying. Once drying is complete, the skin and pulp are removed mechanically.

Coffee Variety

Caturra

Caturra is a Bourbon variety with curved ends and round, slender beans. Its productivity and disease resistance are both better than Bourbon. It adapts to a wide altitude range, from as low as 700 meters to as high as 1700 meters, though higher elevations produce better flavor while somewhat reducing yield.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Records

FrontStreet Coffee's roaster uses a Yangjia 800N semi-direct-flame roaster with a batch size of 480g. The roaster is preheated to 175°C before loading, with heat set to 130 and the damper opened to 3. The temperature return point comes at 1'32", and the heat is held; at 118.4°C the heat stays the same while the damper opens to 4. At 134°C the heat rises to 140. At 5'50" the beans turn yellow and the grassy aroma disappears, marking the start of the dehydration stage. At 157°C the heat is reduced to 110 while the damper stays at 4.

At 8'00" dehydration is complete, wrinkles and dark spots appear on the bean surface, and the toasted-bread aroma shifts to coffee fragrance — the prelude to first crack. From here the crack must be listened for carefully. At 9'14" first crack begins and the damper opens fully to 5. Development time after first crack is 1'30", and the beans are dropped at 194°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee cups its sample beans within 8-24 hours of roasting. 200ml ceramic bowls are used, with cupping water at 94°C. The grind is set to a 70%-75% pass-through rate on a #20 standard sieve (0.85mm). The ratio is 11.1 grams of coffee to 200ml of hot water — that is, 1:18.18 — which extracts a concentration squarely within the 1.15%-1.35% Golden Cup range, with a steeping time of 4 minutes.

Dry Aroma: Fermentation notes

Wet Aroma: Wine fragrance

Flavor: Apple, grape, berries, caramel, fermented wine notes, almond, honey

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Tips

Dripper: Hario V60 01

Dose: 15g

Ratio: 1:15

Temperature: 90°C

Grind: Medium-fine (78% pass-through rate on a Chinese standard #20 sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Method: Three-stage extraction. Use 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then keep pouring in small circles to 125g for the stage break. When the water level drops to the point of exposing the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When the level again drops to the point of exposing the bed, remove the dripper (timing begins with the bloom). Total extraction time is 2'02".

Brewing Flavor: Wine fragrance and the sweet-sour acidity of grape on entry, then strawberry juice in the middle, with honey and almond in the finish. High sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If anaerobic natural processing is what drew you in, FrontStreet Colombia Frontera Estate Sidra is a direct match. It, too, is processed anaerobically, and the oxygen-free fermentation converts the fruit into far more tropical aroma. Roasted medium-light, it works as a pour-over, cold brew, drip bag, or moka pot coffee, showing a complex, concentrated mix of passion fruit, grape, apricot, and dried fruit.

To taste the same country without the fermentation, FrontStreet Colombia Huila is the clean counterpoint. Huila, in the southern Central Cordillera, is Colombia's most famous specialty region: surrounded by mountains, planted above 1,500 meters, and fed by the country's most important rivers, which bring abundant water and humidity. This washed Huila is roasted medium-dark, emphasizing dark chocolate, the sweetness of nuts, moderate body, and a mellow mouthfeel, and it works as a pour-over or French press as well as in a moka pot or home espresso machine. Tasted side by side, the two beans show exactly what anaerobic fermentation adds.