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FrontStreet Coffee: Colombia · Finca El Diviso Ombligon

Region: Huila

Estate: Finca El Diviso

Altitude: 1700 meters

Processing Method: Double Anaerobic Natural

Variety: Ombligon

Flavor Notes: Grape, orange, blueberry, pineapple juice, spices, fermented wine aroma

At the 2022 WBC, Australian champion Anthony Douglas selected a Geisha coffee from Finca El Diviso in Colombia's Veracruz department and won the championship, making both Finca El Diviso and Geisha widely known. In the past two years, a new variety called "Ombligon" grown by Finca El Diviso has also been favored by many competition participants.

Ombligon coffee first came to public attention at the 2023 WBC finals, when third-place Australian competitor Jack Simpson used this bean variety and showcased its rich juice-like qualities through three different beverages. At the recently concluded Chicago WBrC finals, two of the top six finalists also used Ombligon from Colombia's Finca El Diviso as their competition beans.

Ombligon

Like many rare Arabica varieties, the exact origin of Ombligon remains unknown. When asked, farmers generally say it's an Ethiopian variety. Currently, Ombligon grows only in the Huila region of southwestern Colombia, especially showing its best flavor characteristics at altitudes between 1600-1800 meters.

The word "Ombligon" comes from Spanish, meaning "big belly" or "big navel" in Chinese. Its coffee cherries have a very distinctive shape, resembling papaya with large fruits, protruding bottoms, and a small circle that looks like a "navel." This characteristic is not uncommon among most coffee varieties, so farmers named it after this feature.

Genetic testing by World Coffee Research shows that Ombligon has some connection to Ethiopian heirloom varieties, thus recognized as a variety formed through natural mutation of Ethiopian heirloom in Colombia. Growers also found that among Colombia's native coffee varieties, Ombligon has high similarity with Caturra - both have broad leaves, dense coffee cherries, vertically growing branches, high-yield characteristics, and good resistance to leaf rust disease.

Finca El Diviso

Finca El Diviso is located in Pitalito, Huila province. The estate owner Jose Uribe Lasso began growing coffee in 1996. To escape the city noise, he moved from Nariño to Pitalito in Huila and acquired El Diviso in early 2000, starting a new chapter for Finca El Diviso.

The reason for choosing Huila region was its fertile volcanic soil and rich, diverse ecological environment, which gave owner Jose great confidence that with diligent management, both coffee and any other crops could have ideal growing conditions. Today, Finca El Diviso is managed by three brothers: the eldest Jhoan handles cultivation management, Nestor oversees the entire estate operations, while the youngest Adrian handles various marketing and sales responsibilities.

Finca El Diviso has always been committed to cultivating some rare bean varieties that are uncommon on the market. Besides the known Geisha and Ombligon, the estate currently grows Pink Bourbon, Papayo, Tabi, Chiroso, Bourbon Aji, and other rare varieties, as well as some novel natural mutations. Additionally, the estate owner is passionate about developing different types of innovative processing methods to make coffee cherries exhibit diverse and complex characteristics.

Ombligon Coffee Processing Method

When selecting the processing method for coffee cherries, the owner of Finca El Diviso considered that the biggest flavor characteristic of Ombligon coffee is its diverse and complex juice-like qualities. After comparing the flavor characteristics of different post-processing batches, they found that compared to other varieties, allowing coffee cherries to undergo some degree of fermentation before using the natural process can best showcase Ombligon's clear and persistent fruit aromas.

After harvesting ripe Ombligon coffee cherries, they undergo floatation in hot water (50-60°C) to remove unripe fruits and impurities, allowing denser fruits to soak in hot water for about 25 minutes. After floatation, manual selection is performed to remove any defective fruits missed during floatation, then these fresh cherries are placed in sealed fermentation tanks for 24 hours to enhance their flavor and sweetness while collecting the fermented liquid exuded by the coffee.

Next, the estate owner adjusts the amount of fermentation liquid based on the actual quantity of fresh cherries in that batch, adding sugar water to prepare sufficient fermentation liquid, using sugar solution to activate wine yeast, mixing it with the fermentation liquid, then pouring it into the fermentation tank to mix and ferment with the coffee cherries for 72 hours. During this period, the fermentation liquid is recycled every 4 hours, and pH levels are monitored to ensure it never drops below 3.8.

After the coffee cherry fermentation is complete, they are removed and placed in the estate's custom drying boxes for 12 hours of dehydration. This process uses no external heat source, completely utilizing the coffee cherries' own heat to achieve drying through circulating air. Finally, they are transferred to greenhouse drying nets to continue drying for about 15 days.

FrontStreet Coffee's Pour-over Recommendations

Dripper: V60

Water Temperature: 91-93°C

Dose: 15g

Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Fine sugar texture (20# sieve screen 80%)

For brewing, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas typically use a three-pour technique: First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95g (scale shows around 125g), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale shows around 225g), completing in about 1 minute 35 seconds. The total extraction should complete in 2 minutes, then remove the filter cup to finish extraction.

Brewing Flavor: At high temperatures, it exhibits fruit acidity similar to blackcurrant and Kyoho grapes, accompanied by subtle sweetness of orange. In the mouth, it feels like ripe pineapple juice. After swallowing, there are distinct berry and black tea notes. At medium to low temperatures, it shows bright citrus characteristics with slight fermented wine aroma, with very rich layers.

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