Flavor and Taste Characteristics of Colombian Huila Coffee Beans How to Enjoy Washed Dark Roast Huila Coffee

The Rich Heritage of Colombian Coffee

What comes to mind when you think of Colombian coffee? Anaerobic processing? Exotic flavors? A symbol of high quality? In fact, it's all of these things. Yet behind this flourishing development, some original flavors have truly faded away.

Colombia, located in South America, was named in honor of Christopher Columbus. This country, once a paradise for drug lords, has fertile valley lands that could produce premium coca, marijuana, and poppy, as well as high-quality coffee. After the Colombian government, along with US military forces, engaged in "close exchanges" with drug lords entrenched in the mountains, they ultimately resolved the nation's drug cultivation problem through force. Where coca fields once stood, row after row of coffee trees began to grow. From then on, Colombian coffee began to gain worldwide fame.

The Rise of Colombian Coffee Production

Initially, the Colombian government strongly encouraged farmers to grow coffee, providing substantial subsidies. There was even a time when as long as you planted, you didn't need to worry about sales—the government would help solve the problem, guaranteeing you wouldn't lose a single cent. This allowed Colombia's annual coffee production to once rank second in the world, currently holding around fourth place, while its Arabica coffee bean production remains firmly in second position.

The quality of Colombian coffee beans is exceptionally excellent. When FrontStreet Coffee was searching for representative coffee with Colombian coffee flavor characteristics, they discovered that traditional Colombian coffee beans share a common trait: a rich, balanced, intense dark chocolate flavor with notes of caramel sweetness—truly outstanding. Ultimately, FrontStreet Coffee chose washed coffee beans from Huila province as the representative flavor for FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian region, which is part of FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series.

Huila Province: Colombia's Premium Coffee Region

Huila province, located in the southern part of Colombia's central mountain range, is the country's most renowned specialty coffee-producing region. This area consists of hills surrounded by mountains, with cultivation altitudes above 1,500 meters. Colombia's most important rivers converge here, bringing abundant water resources and moisture.

Contrary to the general impression of commercial Colombian coffee as balanced and smooth, many small-farm micro-batch Colombian specialty coffees actually possess distinct regional flavor characteristics. In recent years, with the international market's emphasis on coffee quality and demand for specialty coffee, there has been a gradual shift away from the original size-based grading system. Instead, the focus has moved to micro-regional selections provided by small farmers organized by micro-region—where dozens of small farmers contribute their individual harvests to create a micro-batch for sale. This approach provides more opportunities to select many excellent specific small-farm coffees through batch-by-batch cupping.

Traditional Washed Processing Method

American coffee-producing countries primarily use washed processing methods, including Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and of course, Colombia, which FrontStreet Coffee is introducing today. After coffee cherries are picked, underdeveloped inferior beans are removed through flotation. Next, a pulp separator is used to scrape away the coffee cherry skin and pulp, followed by the fermentation stage. The purpose of fermentation is to use microorganisms to separate the mucilage from the inner bean. The coffee beans remain in fermentation tanks for 16-36 hours, after which they need to be thoroughly cleaned with large amounts of running water, and finally sent to drying grounds for sun-drying. The washed method not only shortens drying time and reduces the defect rate of green coffee beans but also imparts a cleaner, brighter acidity to the coffee.

Similarly, most coffee in Huila also uses traditional washed processing, which results in cleaner flavor profiles and overall superior quality. FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian Huila coffee beans have uniform appearance and consistent size. FrontStreet Coffee uses medium-dark roasting to express a rich mouthfeel that is not bitter but full of dark chocolate aroma, with prominent caramel sweetness and a hint of smooth fruit acidity in the finish—very pleasant.

Why FrontStreet Coffee Created the Daily Bean Series

Many people believe that low-priced coffee beans must have some hidden catch—that it's impossible to have high-quality coffee beans below market price. These thoughts are indeed understandable. After all, we've experienced so many counterfeit incidents. However, FrontStreet Coffee wants to tell everyone that coffee prices are indeed this low—of course, this refers to coffee futures prices. Friends who understand economics can look up coffee futures prices and calculate the value-added costs of various processes to arrive at the final price. In reality, the price of decent quality coffee is just this inexpensive.

FrontStreet Coffee initially created this daily coffee bean series to allow friends who are new to coffee to try different regional coffee bean flavors at a relatively low price. The coffee beans selected for FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series are highly representative, such as FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe coffee beans representing Ethiopia, FrontStreet Coffee's Lintong Mandheling coffee beans representing Indonesia, and FrontStreet Coffee's Huila coffee beans representing Colombia. This allows more friends to get to know coffee beans from major producing regions, select regional beans that match their tastes, and then move on to more expensive coffee beans from those regions.

How to Brew FrontStreet Coffee's Colombian Huila Daily Bean

Considering that the Huila daily bean uses medium-dark roasting with flavor profiles leaning toward nutty, chocolate-rich, and mellow characteristics, the deeper roasting makes the coffee beans more porous and the coffee grounds more absorbent. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee would choose a medium grind level. To avoid extracting excessive undesirable flavors, FrontStreet Coffee will slightly lower the water temperature to a moderate 90 degrees Celsius, paired with a KONO dripper for extraction.

Unlike the V60 dripper, the KONO dripper's only exhaust area is in those quarter ribs. When the water level rises above the rib area, the water level in the dripper continuously increases, building pressure through the weight of the water. Due to the relatively smaller outlet, this extends the contact time between coffee particles and water, allowing water flow to more effectively extract soluble substances, thereby enhancing the coffee's rich, full-bodied texture.

Brewing Parameters:

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

Pour the coffee grounds into a V60 dripper, use twice the weight of the coffee grounds in water to moisten the coffee bed, forming a dome and blooming for 30 seconds. Then, using a small water stream, pour in circles from inside to out until reaching 125g for the first stage. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, then continue with the same fine water stream for the third stage until reaching 225g. Remove the dripper once all coffee liquid has filtered through, taking about 2 minutes total.

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

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473