Coffee drying on raised beds in Nyaruguru District, Rwanda. Courtesy of Kakalove Cafe.

By now, most readers of Coffee Review are familiar with the win-win-hypothesis of specialty coffee: If consumers pay more for better coffee from dedicated producers, and if some of the high prices paid by consumers make it back to those producers, they will be encouraged to generate even better coffees, which will please even more consumers, who will gratefully continue to pay higher prices, and everyone, from farmer to consumer, will benefit. This is roughly the hypothesis upon which Coffee Review was founded in 1997, and it remains central to our mission.

This report is not the place to evaluate this hypothesis or its overall success, but in regard to the impact on producers, it is important to note that accumulating statistical evidence suggests that North American specialty coffee roasters do pay significantly higher prices for the coffees they buy than does the commodity coffee industry. In other words, some of the higher prices Coffee Review readers pay for today’s fine specialty coffees do make it back to producers.

The reason for bringing up the specialty coffee win-win hypothesis in the context of this report is to argue that it is nowhere as crucial as with the coffee-growing societies we feature in this report, those in the heart of Africa situated around and near the immense 1500-mile-long string of Africa’s great lakes that form the source of the Nile river. The coffees from this region are largely grown at high elevations and they come from admired tree varieties prevalent in the region for decades. Origins include the tiny but coffee-rich countries of Rwanda and Burundi, the nearby Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), and parts of Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi.

Some of these societies are among the most impoverished in the world, and coffee, usually produced on tiny plots averaging fewer than four or five acres, is a desperately needed lifeline. Specialty coffee is also a crucial vehicle for economic cooperation among competing, often warring, social groups. The spectacular long-term success of the USAID-funded PEARL project aimed at rebuilding genocide-ravaged Rwanda through improving its coffees and positioning them at the high end of the specialty market is often cited as one of the main reasons the Hutu and Tutsi factions in Rwanda now maintain a largely peaceful, productive coexistence after decades of strife and tension.

Kabirizi washing station, COOPAC Cooperative, Rwanda. Courtesy of Cafe Imports.

True, traceable coffees from single farms of the kind we are familiar with from Latin America are rare in most of these African coffee-growing regions. Coffee is usually brought by smallholding farmers to mills (called washing stations). There, the coffees are bulked together in lots by experienced mill operators who are either members of the cooperative operating the mill or knowledgeable managers familiar with local farms and farmers. Despite the relative anonymity of individual farmers, the lots coming from the best mills are often exceptional, sometimes extraordinary, and certainly worthy of admiration and prices to match their excellence.

Lots of Samples, Impressive Ratings

We tested 75 Great Lakes coffees for this report. The greatest number by far were produced in Rwanda (36 samples; average rating 90.6, low 81, high 94) followed by Burundi (18 samples; average rating 89.9, low 87, high 93). DR Congo and Tanzania supplied fewer samples but still generated impressive ratings. We tested six samples from DR Congo (average 89.3, low 85, high 94) and eight from Tanzania (average 90.1, low 86, high 94). Only Uganda and Malawi lagged, with very few samples.

Sorting just-picked cherries in Nyaruguru District, Rwanda. Courtesy of Kakalove Cafe.

Fine Coffees, Devastating Setback in DR Congo

However, specialty coffee’s promise of better lives and greater social stability for the region’s smallholding producers is an often fragile undertaking. This was made starkly clear just three weeks before the publication of this report by the devastating eruption of the volcano Nyiragongo in the Kivu region of the DR Congo. The eruption struck at the heart of one of specialty coffee’s most inspiring recent success stories. Over the past decade, a range of agencies has led an increasingly successful push to develop fine coffee in the Kivu region. The eruption, which occurred without warning, displaced several hundred-thousand people, many of them coffee producers who were just achieving a modicum of stability in this region long tormented by ethnic violence.

Tio Fallen of Houston-based Three Keys Coffee preparing to roast “Congo Square.” Courtesy of Rob Sykes.

The six samples we cupped from Kivu for this month’s report averaged a rating of nearly 90 and include the superb 94-rated Three Keys Congo Square reviewed with this report. The Three Keys sample displayed a strikingly original wet-processed profile, simultaneously intensely sweet, vibrantly tart and deeply savory all at once, with an intriguing juxtaposition of pistachio-like nut and sweet honey. Those interested in other variations of the Congo cup might look for the Joe Bean Congo Umoja or the Fieldheads Democratic Republic of the Congo, both 90-rated, though not formally reviewed for this month’s report.

Recovery in the Kivu region will doubtless be slow; immediate help is needed. If, in addition to supplying indirect long-term support by buying DR Congo coffee, readers are inclined to help directly, here are two relevant programs now active on the ground aiding those displaced by the eruption.

On the Ground is a non-profit that supports smallholding coffee farmers in the DR Congo and Chiapas, Mexico regions. It is in part supported by Coffee Review advertiser Amavida Coffee Roasters and regular submitter Wonderstate (formerly Kickapoo) Coffee. On the Ground is offering immediate emergency help to those displaced by the eruption from its headquarters in the coffee town of Minova. Along with other charitable non-profits, Save the Children is working on an emergency basis directly in the region.

The Classic Great Lakes Washed Cup: Deep, Sweet-Savory, Cocoa and Flowers

It is reassuring, perhaps, to report that the classic washed cup from these origins, particularly from Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo, has not been completely submerged in a torrent of cup-altering processing experiments of the kind that are rippling through the coffee-growing regions of the world. It is a cup distinguished by a savory-sweet depth and richness, with occasional nutty or starchy undertones, but almost always with cocoa-toned chocolate leanings and surprising grace notes of flowers and dried fruit. We tested many satisfying variations of this cup from multiple roasters that we rated solidly in the 89 to 91 range. Reasonably priced, always with some little sensory surprise hidden among the more familiar aromatics, these are excellent choices for everyday drinking, particularly when they are in season from roasters, usually spring and early summer in the global north.

For two particularly fine renditions of the style, see our reviews here of the cocoa- and floral-toned Big Creek Rwanda Rulindo Tumba (94) and the similarly deep, chocolaty and floral Kakalove Rwanda Akagera CWS (93), the latter complicated by a shimmer of tart citrus.

Coffees of the Akagera Project in Nyaruguru District, Rwanda, in various stages of the drying process. Courtesy of Kakalove Cafe.

Most coffees from the Great Lakes origins are produced from variants of Bourbon-derived varieties long grown in the region. It may not be fanciful to relate the sweet-savory, floral and cocoa tendencies of Rwanda and Burundi coffees in particular to this Bourbon heritage. As for processing, many mills in the Great Lakes region, as well as in Kenya, practice a particularly complex version of the washed  process, in which freshly skinned fruit is first subject to a ferment step with no added water (“dry” ferment), then washed, then fermented a second time with clean water added to the tank, before being washed still again. The impact of these procedures on the sensory style of these coffees has not, to my knowledge, been systemically investigated or even much discussed, but I would guess that these practices may have something to do with the regional tendency to low-toned yet deeply expressed complexity.

The Potato Defect

Rwanda coffees, in particular, are haunted by this taint — the sudden, disconcerting aroma and flavor of raw potato. Apparently, the defect is set off by bacteria (Pantoea coffeiphila) introduced under the skin of the coffee fruit via a species of stinkbug called antestia. The bacteria cause a compound to develop around the bean that produces the powerful and memorable raw potato taste. A single fully potato-tainted bean can spoil an entire brew batch. Remarkably, among the 60-some coffees we tested from regions affected by the taint, we ran into no full-on potato cups, as we call them. This is a tribute to careful farm management and to careful examination of freshly washed coffee. Beans carrying this taint evidently can be identified only by visual examination when the coffee is still in its wet parchment, fresh from washing, and the tainted beans must be picked off the drying tables by hand, one by one.

Impact of Alternative Processing Methods

Like coffee producers all over the world, many mills in the Great Lakes regions are experimenting with alternative processing methods. The goal is to differentiate their coffees from the regional wet-processed norm I described earlier and to attract more attention and higher prices from buyers. True, the Great Lakes producers do not appear to be taking as many processing shots in the dark as their counterparts are doing in Central America and elsewhere. For example, we had no samples whatsoever processed using the experimental anaerobic ferment techniques increasingly popular in Latin America and Ethiopia. (See our May 2021 report, Fun With Ferment: Anaerobically Processed Coffees.)

We did test quite a few natural-processed samples, however (beans are dried in the entire fruit), and a handful of honey-processed coffees (the skin of the fruit is removed but at least some of the sticky fruit flesh is allowed to dry on the beans). The Great Lakes naturals we tested struck me as rather traditional given their processing method. They tended to aim unapologetically for the big-time sweet fruit and chocolate potential of the method. We review here two of the successes, the Rwanda Kinini Village Natural from PT’s Coffee (94; juicy sweet, blueberry pie) and the Rwanda Dukunde Kawa from Black Oak Coffee (93; dark chocolate, crisp and fragrantly cedary).

Sorting cherries for the Long Miles Coffee Project in Kayanza State, Burundi. Courtesy of Oliver Stormshak.

If the drying is not handled well with honey coffees, profiles can end rather rough, even musty. However, the two honey-processed samples we review here were particularly graceful examples of the style. The Olympia Coffee Burundi Mikuba Honey (93) is round, balanced and crisply sweet, with subtly original aromatics (spicy flowers, apricot). The very light-roasted Mamechamame Coffee Rwanda Simbi (93) is delicately brisk and lightly tart with pomegranate suggestions.

The Roast Card

Most coffees we test over the course of a year are light-medium to medium in roast, reflecting each individual roaster’s personally calibrated goal of fully developing the character of the bean while leaving behind neither a distracting scorchy edge nor the grassy, nutty hints of an underdeveloped roast. This month, however, we review one successful darker roast, the Valverde Burundi Kinyovu (92; sweetly roast-toned, roundly pungent and chocolaty), and one very light roast, the Mamechamame Rwanda Simbi (noted above, brisk and sweetly tart).

The Tanzania Exception

Tanzania, the large country south of Kenya, bordering Rwanda and Burundi on the west and the Indian Ocean on the east, is a producer that, unlike its northern neighbors Kenya and Ethiopia, has never quite broken into the specialty coffee big time. It is blessed with a variety of excellent coffee terroirs and large plantings of traditional, subtly distinctive Bourbon-related varieties of Arabica. It also benefits from a peculiar marketing advantage (or perhaps limitation) bestowed on it by coffee tradition. “Tanzania peaberry” is an arbitrary sort of specialty coffee “brand.”

The landscape surrounding Sambewe AMCOS Cooperative in Songwe Region, Mbozi District, Tanzania. Courtesy of Cafe Imports.

Peaberries, of course, are a grade of coffee produced everywhere that coffee is grown, yet for reasons that are not entirely clear, Tanzania is particularly associated with its peaberry grades. In other words, all coffee origins produce peaberries, but of all coffee-producing countries of the world only Tanzania seems to be particularly identified with them. In the early days of specialty coffee, “Tanzania peaberry” was a standard, almost requisite offering in specialty stores, and it continues to appear on specialty coffee menus and websites, though with less frequency than it once did.

The nursery at Sambewe AMCOS Cooperative in Songwe Region, Mbozi District, Tanzania. Courtesy of Cafe Imports.

We review one Tanzania peaberry this month, an excellent one, the Volcanica Tanzania Peaberry (94). It was produced in northern Tanzania, toward the border with Kenya, and perhaps for that reason its suave balance and juicy character are rather Kenya-like, with aromatics built around pungent fruit (black currant, pink grapefruit) and lush flowers. The other impressive Tanzania we review, also a washed coffee, the Lexington Tanzania Sambewe (94), is high-toned, richly juicy and sweetly bright. If neither of these profiles quite sound like the rounder, more savory Great Lakes profile I generalized about earlier, it is because Tanzania is a bit of a coffee world apart. We include its usually brighter, higher-toned coffees here for expediency (otherwise Tanzania tends to get left out of our reports), and for its geography, since much of its long western border runs through or next to the shores of two of the greatest of the Great Lakes, Tanganyika and Malawi.

Nevertheless, as with other origins we highlight in this report, Tanzania producers, often smallholders organized in cooperatives or working in collaboration with a mill, are deserving of our attention and support — as are all of the farmers, mill operators and their exporter, aid agency and roaster partners who are busy elevating the coffee societies of the Great Lakes region from anonymity to distinction.

The post African Great Lakes Coffees: Quality in the Face of Adversity appeared first on Coffee Review.

Anaerobically processed coffee cherries drying in the whole fruit at Elida Estate in Panama. Courtesy of Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea.

In early April, some rather odd-smelling packages began arriving at the Coffee Review lab. Describing the collective aromas that wafted from them is difficult. And describing those aromas continued to be difficult once we started actually tasting the coffees inside the packages. Certainly, there was lots of fruit and chocolate. And fragrant cut cedar, and sweet flowers. But along with these more familiar coffee aromas came some that we do not usually associate with coffee. Maybe soft cheeses, like the mild goat cheese one eats in salads. Or, occasionally, more pungent cheeses like feta or blue cheese. Sometimes kefir, that gentle, tangy-creamy liquid version of yogurt. Sometimes fresh earth, tobacco or mushrooms. And occasionally, notes that we may not associate with food at all. Musk, for example, the deep, pungent, often perspiration-like aromas used as base notes in perfumes, originally derived from secretions of the male musk deer.

These packages contained coffees that were processed using techniques the coffee world has come to call “anaerobic.” Very broadly, this term means that at some point the coffees were subject to fermentation while shut inside sealed bags or tanks with limited access to oxygen.

Most of us are familiar with the sensory character of coffees that have been fermented with access to oxygen. We recognize the sweet, fruit-forward notes produced by oxygen-loving, alcohol-generating yeasts, particularly as we enjoy them in fine dried-in-the-fruit, natural-processed coffees: berries, chocolate, lush flowers, suggestions of wine or spirits.

On the other hand, when fruit is largely deprived of oxygen during fermentation, as happened with this month’s coffees, yeasts are suppressed and various bacteria become more active in fermentation. Rather than the fruit or alcohol-related notes produced by yeasts, these bacteria tend to generate the tangy lactic acid notes we find in yogurt and cheeses, in some sour beers, and in fermented vegetable preparations like sauerkraut or kimchee.

Description Difficult, Pleasure High

Fortunately, we did not have any sauerkraut- or kimchee-nuanced samples among the 43 coffees we tested for this report. Nevertheless, we did struggle a bit in describing and evaluating these anaerobic samples. Many of them almost violently violated the familiar rules defining taints and defects that for years have enabled us to comfortably evaluate classic washed coffees. We found that we needed to examine these coffees from a fresh perspective, starting from the great traditions of fine coffee but not stopping there. We avoided asking ourselves, “is this a fine coffee in the way we already understand coffee?” Rather, we asked ourselves: “Is this an exciting and inherently pleasing variation on the sensory possibilities of coffee?” In particular, we looked for ways that the subtle-to-striking sensory intrigue that anaerobic fermentation brings to the cup expanded on more familiar coffee pleasures.

Coffee cherries processed by carbonic maceration at Finca Villa Loyola in Colombia’s Nariño growing region. Courtesy of PT’s Coffee.

And although we often puzzled about how to understand and characterize these coffees, overall we ended up liking a lot of them. Of the 43 samples we cupped, a very impressive 19 (44%) came off the table at 93 or higher. We’ve chosen 12 of those 19 to review here. All five samples that rated 94 or higher are included. From the additional 14 that rated 93, we selected seven to review based on a range of method, origin and profile.

Anaerobic Definitions

Again, what makes the coffees we tested “anaerobic” by current coffee terminology is that, soon after picking, they were shut inside sealed tanks or bags, protected from access to oxygen-bearing air. The CO2 produced by the fermenting fruit builds up inside the bag or tank, further limiting access to oxygen. Valves allow surplus CO2 to escape while preventing air from entering. The coffee remains sealed this way, largely oxygen-deprived, for anywhere from around one day to six days, after which it is dried. (Predictably, the longer in the bags or tanks, the more pronounced the anaerobic impact.)

Coffees processed by the ASD (anaerobic slow dry) method drying on raised beds in Panama. Courtesy of Geisha Coffee Roasters.

If the seeds or beans remain enveloped by fruit throughout fermenting and drying, the coffee becomes an anaerobic natural. If the drying is deliberately slowed down to 60 or more days the coffee may be further labeled an anaerobic slow-dry (ASD) natural. Finally, if the tanks in which the fruit is fermented are injected with additional CO2 to further cut off the fermenting beans’ access to oxygen, the method may be called carbonic maceration (carbonic refers to the use of CO2; maceration is a rough synonym for fermentation).

So: sealed in bags and dried in the whole fruit for a normal period, anaerobic natural. The same but with deliberately prolonged drying, ASD natural. CO2 injected into the ferment tanks: carbonic maceration natural.

However, we face yet one more layer of terminology. The preceding methods all involve keeping the coffee beans encased in the fruit all the way from fermentation through drying, making them anaerobic variations on the natural method. Other coffees we tested for this report were anaerobic washed coffees: The skin and fruit flesh were removed from the beans immediately after an initial anaerobic fermentation, but before they were dried. These samples understandably tended to be a bit leaner in body but brighter in structure than the anaerobic naturals, yet still quite uniquely composed. Still other samples had only the skins removed after fermentation and were dried with the fruit flesh or mucilage still adhering to them, making them anaerobic honey-processed coffees.

Lots of Surprises, No Neat Distinctions

Returning to the broad picture, a lot goes on inside those sealed tanks or bags during the time the coffee fruit is sequestered in them. Wilford Lamastus of Panama’s Elida Estate, who more than anyone else popularized the slow-dry version of the anaerobic method, points out that during fermentation inside the tank, “There is a significant amount of concentrated liquid from the coffee fruit. This leach is full of the flavors of the variety, the terroir where the plants are located, of natural yeasts, natural microorganisms, natural bacterias …”

Father and son: Wilford Lamastus and Wilford Lamastus, Jr. of Panama’s Elida Estate. Courtesy of Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea.

Note that Lamastus mentions both bacterias and yeasts. From this exercise, I think I can observe with confidence that the neat conceptual separation between fruit-forward coffees subject to yeast fermentation and those subject to tangy bacteria-lactic fermentation is seldom clear-cut in the actual context of the cup. Almost all of the 43 coffees we tested showed clear anaerobically driven characteristics ranging from full-on tangy lactic acid notes to subtle lactic innuendos, but these unorthodox tendencies always overlaid more familiar coffee styles and satisfactions. In naturals, the lush fruit-forward tendencies we associate with alcohol ferment were fused with lactic influences. And in coffees processed with a washed step before drying, the predictably brighter acidity and subtler fruit was deepened by various pungent, tangy-lactic inclinations.

Drying coffee on raised beds at the Ana Sora Washing Station in Ethiopia. Courtesy of Paradise Roasters.

What virtually all of the samples seemed to present is greater-than-usual intensity of sensation, an inclination toward fuller mouthfeel, and often increased sweetness. Roasters who responded to our questions about anaerobically processed coffees often used the term “intensity” when describing them. Most of these correspondents found the intensity valuable, though many cautioned that, given how powerfully anaerobic processing impacts the cup, the method should be applied with tact. A good number apparently would agree with Barry Levine’s (of Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea) observation that “Too much intensity can mask a coffee’s inherent qualities like a dark roast would, although in a completely different way.”

Different in Different Ways

Certainly, one of the most striking overall characteristics of all of this month’s anaerobic coffees is how they express their differences with often disconcerting variety and originality. Here are the 12 samples we review this month very briefly characterized in terms of the singularly successful way each embodies some of the diverse possibilities of the anaerobic approach.

Corvus Coffee Roasters La Estrella Carbonic Geisha Reserve (Colombia; 95). Here the great floral Geisha variety was fermented in sealed, pressurized CO2 and dried in the whole fruit. The result: bright yet lushly layered, complex — overlaid with a very subtle funky intrigue.

Coffee Please Ethiopia Guji Wush Wush Anaerobic Natural (95). Anaerobic natural processing applied to the Ethiopian Wush Wush variety and its classic southern Ethiopia style. Delicate, silky, intricate, with a bonus yogurty, lactic tang.

Paradise Roasters Ethiopia Guji Wush Wush (95). Another Wush Wush prepared with anaerobic natural processing: silky, juicy, extravagantly floral, here with a savory edge deepening the lactic inclination.

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters Tres Dragones Colombia (94). Not an anaerobic natural, as we learned after testing, but a hybrid natural — the whole fruit was subject to fermentation in a covered but not sealed vessel before drying. Consequently, it’s the only sample in this month’s report with a distinct alcohol edge. We called it rum barrel. Add to that mango, chocolate and musk.

Willoughby’s Panama Elida Estate Catuaí Natural ASD (94). Six days sealed in bags and 60 days on the drying patio nets lots of chocolate, massive mouthfeel and deep, lactic-tart acidity with a gently pungent dairy note we called fresh goat cheese.

Geisha Coffee Roaster Elida Natural ASD (Panama; 93). See above. The cheese note struck us as a little sharper here, but pleasingly so, the chocolate just as big, the flowers deep and sweet. And check out the price.

De Clieu Ethiopia Guji Natural Anaerobic Wush Wush G1 (93). Another anaerobic natural Wush Wush from Ethiopia, but this one leans toward the cedary, musky and savory, though with an abundance of crisp chocolate and sweet flowers as well.

Fumi Coffee Peru Yanesha Geisha Double-Anaerobic (93). Two stages of anaerobic ferment before the last of the fruit residue is washed off and the beans are dried makes this a particularly complex version of the anaerobic washed style. Cleanly expressed complexity with the anaerobic contribution resonantly present rather than explicit. Produced from the great Geisha variety as grown in Peru.

Ilustre Specialty Coffee Pink Bourbon Natural Anaerobic Colombia (93). An anaerobic natural that achieves a very light-footed and tropical feel (lychee, jasmine, sandalwood), probably due in part to the typical juicy sweetness of the local Colombia Pink Bourbon variety, in part perhaps to a particularly discreet application of the anaerobic natural protocol. This Ilustre sample is particularly noteworthy for us because it appears to be the first ever sample Coffee Review has reviewed from a Mexico-based roaster.

Nine Point Coffee Ethiopia Oromia Anaerobic Natural (93). Not a dark roast, more a dark-medium, but the pungently sweet, faintly smoky character imparted by the roast nicely complements the Ethiopia fruit (turned raisiny here) and spicy flowers.

PT’s Coffee Roasting Villa Loyola Carbonic Maceration Colombia (93). The plain, straightforward hybrid Colombia variety gets a gentle anaerobic natural boost here, developing quiet chocolate, citrus and flowers, with only a soft hint of fruity funk.

Steady State Roasting Castillo El Paraiso Colombia (93). A classic, powerful Colombia high-grown coffee, washed but with an anaerobic ferment phase added early on that perhaps is what pushes the fruit in a tart, pungent tropical direction: for us, passionfruit and mango.

As producers continue to experiment with the details of anaerobic fermentation, we will undoubtedly see still more variations on the method and still more names for those variations. Open your mind, freshen your palate, and get out your notebook.

And Thanks To

Those roaster contributors whose generous and perceptive comments enriched our understanding of anaerobic processes and this month’s coffees: Rudy Altamirano of Ilustre Specialty Coffee; Yu-lin Chiu of Nine Point Coffee; Phil Goodlaxson of Corvus Coffee Roasters; Patrick Lamastus of Geisha Coffee Roaster; Barry Levine of Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea; Mike Mazulo of PT’s Coffee Roasting Co.; Miguel Meza of Paradise Roasters; Elliot Reinecke of Steady State Roasting; and Maritza Taylor of Bird Rock Coffee Roasters.

The post Fun With Ferment: Anaerobically Processed Coffees appeared first on Coffee Review.

Red Rooster’s “Trust The Process” Colombia coffee was the top-rated coffee in this month’s report. Photo courtesy of Red Rooster Coffee Roaster.

Colombia could be approaching best-of-both-worlds status as coffee producer. On one hand, standard commodity Colombias continue rolling down to the ports and onward into “100% Colombian” supermarket cans and jars, whose quite decent contents put to shame the bland, woody, Robusta-laden contents of competing supermarket cans and jars.

At the same time, small lots of specialty Colombia coffees, surprising and exceptional, have surfaced over the last decade or so. Until recently, these specialty Colombias aimed for a superior version of the classic power and completeness associated with the best traditional Colombia coffees. In other words, they aspired to transcend the standard-issue Colombia cup by doing the same thing, only better.

But recently, increasing numbers of Colombias have appeared on specialty lists that represent the opposite of classic. These are often anything-goes, push-it-to-the-limit experiments with processing method of the kind that have erupted at the trendy high end of the coffee market over the past couple of years. In particular, they include sweetly fruit-toned coffees dried in the whole fruit (naturals), as well as coffees processed by a range of hybrid methods, including variations on the latest processing fad, anaerobic fermentation.

From a consumer point of view, the best of both worlds could be starting to look like a split coffee personality.

63 Single-Farm Colombias

We tested 63 single-farm Colombias for this month’s report. Close to half (45%) were conventionally washed or wet-processed in the Colombia tradition. About 30% were dried-in-the-fruit or natural-processed (in other words, not in the Colombia tradition). And almost 25% were subject to ingenious hybrid variations on anaerobic processing or carbonic maceration, definitely not in the Colombia tradition. Anaerobic, by the way, means that at some point during the process of fruit removal and drying the coffees are subject to fermentation in restricted oxygen conditions (sealed tanks, sealed bags, tanks filled with CO2). When the oxygen restriction is performed by sealing the coffee fruit in tanks filled with CO2 the process may be termed carbonic maceration, with maceration in this case used as a rough synonym for fermentation and carbonic referring to the CO2. All such deprivation of oxygen during fermentation aims to reduce the action of oxygen-loving yeasts that produce sweet alcohol fermentation while promoting the action of lactic-acid-producing bacteria that don’t need oxygen. These last are the sorts of bacteria that influence the taste of yogurt, kefir, sour beers and kimchee, among other foods and beverages.

Based on my own experience tasting these experiments, the best of them seem to combine cup characteristics I associate with the lush impact of yeast/alcohol fermentation as well as the tangy tart-sweetness of lactic fermentation. But either way, these hybrid anaerobic-ferment coffees offer the almost exact opposite of what we expect from standard washed-process coffees in the Colombia tradition: They propose the unexpected rather than the expected, the surprising rather than the predictably suave and balanced.

No Matter What the Process, Considerable Success

Regardless of processing variation, the 63 Colombia single-farm samples we tested for this month’s report were overall impressive. More than half scored 90 or higher, and a notable 17 scored 93 or better. Of those seventeen 93+ samples, we chose 12 to review this month.

Surprisingly, perhaps, these 12 report-topping coffees were split among processing methods almost precisely in the same percentages as the samples were for the cupping as a whole. Almost half (42%) were washed process, 25% were natural-processed, and 25% were variations on anaerobic methods. There was one honey-processed coffee, accounting for the 8% needed to reach 100%.

So, if there is any lesson to be learned here concerning processing method and high ratings at Coffee Review, it would seem to be that it’s not the processing method that attracts high ratings, but rather the care and knowledge the producer brings to executing those processing methods. Supported, of course, by importers, roasters and consumers willing to pay enough to justify that care and knowledge.

Scan the Ratings, but Read the Reviews

Another lesson is that consumers using Coffee Review to help with their buying decisions might want to purchase coffees based on reading the reviews as well as looking at the ratings.

Take the top three coffees in the report, all rated 95 or 96. One was a natural-processed coffee, the Red Rooster “Trust the Process” (96), one a conventional fully washed coffee, the Paradise Finca El Caucho (95), and one a hybrid anaerobic, the Kakalove Cafe Colombia 95). Not only the processing methods, but the particular coffee pleasures offered by these three exceptional coffees, are quite different. Of course, one could also argue that by buying any of them, the coffee lover wins, just in different ways.

Kakalove Cafe’s Natural Carbonic Maceration coffee, which earned 95 points, was grown at Finca La Colombia in Antioquia. Photo Courtesy of Kakalove Cafe.

Juan Valdez Contemplates Carbonic Maceration

With almost any other origin except Colombia, such a schitzy split in processing method and coffee personality might go unnoticed. But for the last 60 years, Colombia has been successfully selling the world on a uniform, relatively consistent coffee experience branded “100% Colombian.” The National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC)’s decades-long, innovative marketing program built around that name and featuring the photogenic farmer Juan Valdez (played by a succession of actual coffee farmers over the years) remains a remarkable, award-winning success story in establishing brand recognition with North American consumers. At one point in the early 2000s, around 12.5% of all coffee sold in the U.S. was Colombian.

Meanwhile, at the producing end, the FNC relentlessly pursued its goal of turning all of its grower members into one unified coffee expression, as near as possible offering the same “100% Colombian” cup no matter where in Colombia the green coffee came from or which of its 513,000 farmer-members grew it.

Keep It Washed

So committed was Colombia to achieving a consistent nationwide coffee profile that, for decades, Colombian authorities only allowed coffees to be exported that pretty much fit the “100% Colombian” model: standard clean-profiled, wet-processed coffees that fulfilled certain grading expectations. The goal was to prevent lower-quality or off-tasting coffees from reaching the market and sullying the 100% Colombia brand. But these rules also discouraged export of quality coffees processed using alternative processing methods.

In 2015, Colombia authorities finally relaxed those regulations. The main driver apparently was a need to export somewhat lower-quality coffees to meet demand during a time when the rust epidemic and other factors severely reduced overall Colombia coffee production. But surely, an additional motivation must have been the desire of some producers and their importer and roaster allies to see Colombia join the growing movement to create new and exciting cup profiles through experimentation with processing.

At any rate, the change in Colombian export regulations five years ago opened the door to the rather striking contrast among this month’s 12 reviewed coffees, a contrast between what we might call the Similar-But-Better approach and the Different-But-Exciting approach to specialty differentiation.

The Similar-But-Better Successes

The top-rated among this month’s Similar-But-Better collection is the 95-point Paradise Colombia Finca El Caucho Pink Bourbon, with its natural sweetness, high-toned brightness, and intricate floral, honey and citrus notes. True, although its lovely honey-sweet yet citrusy structure may have been encouraged by a classic washed process, its juicy complexity probably can be attributed to a tree variety that local Colombian growers in the Huila region call Pink Bourbon.

Roberto Achicue of Finca El Caucho grew the Paradise Roasters Pink Bourbon we rated at 95 points. Photo courtesy of Paradise Roasters.

In terms of fact and science, there appear to be more questions than answers about Pink Bourbon and its origins and genetics. Both red-fruited and yellow-fruited Bourbons are widely grown in the coffee world, and local Colombian producers have made the logical assumption that their Pink Bourbon is a spontaneous cross between Red and Yellow. However, genetic fingerprinting suggests that the Huila version is more likely a variety not directly related to Bourbon. Nevertheless, one thing seems clear: Pink Bourbon as grown in the Huila region of Colombia can produce an impressive cup.

Regrettably, the 95-point Paradise Finca El Caucho Pink Bourbon is already sold out on the roaster’s website, but I think readers will not be stepping very far back with either the 93-rated Badbeard’s Special Project Colombia Pink Bourbon or the 93-rated JBC Aces La Juntas, also from trees of the Pink Bourbon. Both are washed process, and both are sweetly and gently tart and juicy in structure with a citrusy edge. The Badbeard version is more floral and the JBC more chocolaty and nut-toned. I confess that I brought the leftover Badbeard’s home and drank it with the greatest pleasure over two days running.

Two more 93-rated washed-process Colombias fill out this month’s Similar-But-Better contingent: the Greater Goods Bright Minds and the modcup Colombia Finca Potosi. Both are produced from a selection of standard Colombia varieties: Caturra, Colombia, Castillo. But both display considerable distinction, presumably owing to meticulous work at the farm and mill: spice and flower notes with a fine dry chocolate in the case of the Bright Minds; sweet lilac-like flowers and orangy citrus and caramel with the modcup Finca Potosi.

Finca Potosi, in Colombia’s Valle de Cauca, grew a special lot for modcup coffee, which earned 93 points. Photo courtesy of modcup coffee.

Three Impressive Naturals

It was only about 15 years ago that producers in Ethiopia and Central America began to seriously experiment with natural processing fine coffee. Until then, drying coffee in the whole fruit was a practice associated almost exclusively with poor-quality, mass-produced coffees. Peripheral fermentation during drying in the whole fruit tends to impart taste characteristics to the cup that can range from unpleasantly rotten, through seductively brandy-like, to gloriously sweet and complex. Specialty coffee producers all over the world are now learning how to control drying to produce coffees in the positive range of that spectrum, and based on this month’s samples, some Colombia producers are now well into that game.

This month’s top-rated coffee, the 96-point Red Rooster “Trust the Process” Full Natural appears to be a triumph of well-managed natural processing, given that the tree varieties that were subject to that processing are the usually plain-tasting, straightforward Caturra and Colombia. The Red Rooster natural is deeply resonant with sustained, shifting complexity, supported by a structure that reviewer Kim Westerman calls “lyrically sweet, mysteriously savory, invitingly tart.”

Like the Red Rooster, this month’s other two top-rated naturals, the Blues Brew Finca La Maria Geisha Natural (94) and the Plat Colombia Diofanor Ruiz (94) are what we might call clean naturals (or maybe sober naturals). Neither display much alcohol-related nuance, though both are quite distinctive in their processing-driven expression. The Blues Brew is deeply chocolaty, sweet-savory and pungent. The Plat is higher-toned, fruit-forward but tangy and tart, with some pleasant yogurty dairy suggestions.

The Latest Wrinkle: Anaerobic Fermented Naturals

With this month’s three samples involving variations on anaerobic ferment or carbonic maceration, we travel farthest from the classic Colombia cup. Nevertheless, these three coffees are not extreme examples of the anaerobic style. All seem to retain the familiar lushly sweet tendencies of yeast fermentation combined with only moderate influence of the tangy bacterial ferment associated with anaerobic or carbonic methods.

All three basically build on the natural method. The 95-rated Kakalove Colombia Antioquia Natural Carbonic Maceration Caturra was essentially kept in the whole fruit during extensive fermentation in sealed tanks injected with CO2 and afterwards dried in the whole fruit. The result is a jammy, sweet, chocolaty cup with intricate flavor nuance and savory depth: dessert-like but complex. The 94-rated Brioso Colombia Java El Edén is also essentially a natural coffee fermented in low-oxygen conditions and dried in the whole fruit, netting a profile both sweetly lush and tangily lactic, not to mention intricate and original in aromatics. The 93-rated Dory Colombia Finca El Paraiso reveals the most explicit anaerobic influence. It also was subject to the most complex procedure: first 24 hours in the whole fruit in sealed tanks, then pulped or skinned and put back in the tanks for another 36 hours of anaerobic/limited oxygen ferment. It is, frankly, a not-for-everyone success: savory-sweet and complexly herby and chocolaty — think sweet chocolate sauce with ginger and herbs.

Jason Yu of Dory Coffee Roasters, based in Taipei, Tawian, whose double-anaerobic coffee scored 93 points. Photo courtesy of Jason Yu.

And a Honey with Variations

It’s good to conclude with a classic cup, albeit one generated through still more processing experiment. Evie’s Café La Gallera Estate (94) is technically a honey-processed coffee, since it was dried encased in the fruit flesh after being pulped. But along the way to the drying tables, it was fermented twice, albeit briefly, once in the whole fruit and again after pulping. Apparently, however, neither of these ferment episodes involved limited oxygen or other anaerobic hijinks. You might call the Evie Café’s honey a discreet experiment producing a discreetly fine coffee, balanced but complete: softly bright with notes of raspberry, chocolate, flowers, nut.

A Quick Return to the Big Picture

Coming back to the best of both worlds theme I opened with, the Colombia coffee authorities have managed to turn the corner on the ravages of climate change and the great rust disease pandemic starting in 2009. Mainly driven by a successful program of planting disease-resistant coffee varieties, total Colombia coffee exports have climbed steadily over the past several years.

In the big picture, we have to hope that the 100% Colombia program will continue to roll on successfully, supported by higher and fairer prices for this sturdy, dependable, essential coffee type. The 100% Colombia program still provides North American consumers with the only solid budget coffee experience available in supermarket cans and instants while providing an essential livelihood for Colombia’s hundreds of thousands of smallholding producers.

Luis Samper, distinguished coffee writer, researcher and proponent of the Colombia industry, points out that the sorts of microlot coffees produced by processing innovations like those described here (natural, anaerobic, honey) remain the tiniest drop in the bucket in the big economic picture for Colombia coffee. Estimates he has seen puts exports of such alternative-processed Colombia coffees at around 15,000 70-kilo bags per year. Colombia’s total exports in 2020 came to around 10.7 million 70-kilo bags of Arabica coffee of various qualities.

But for Coffee Review and its readers, and hopefully for the producers passionately engaged in refining traditional processes or diving headlong into new alternatives, this tiny drop of specialty Colombias is a glistening jewel deep with creative possibility and daily pleasure.

Coffee Review would like to thank guest cupper Lily Logan, Operations Manager at Bay Area CoRoasters (CoRo), who made valuable contributions to this month’s reviews.

The post Colombia Coffee 2021: Best of Both Worlds or Identity Crisis? appeared first on Coffee Review.

Road leading to coffee farms in the highlands of western Honduras near Santa Barbara National Park.

For decades, the classic washed or wet-processed coffees of Central America and Mexico have constituted one of the world’s great go-to coffee types. Usually clean-tasting, usually sweetly-tart, with a shifting array of fruit notes – always stone fruit, typically some citrus and flowers, always notes ranging from nut and caramel to full-on dark chocolate depending on the coffee and roast. And most likely some aromatic wood, from the sweet-pungent odor of fresh-cut cedar to scorchy pine in darker roasts. The details might differ by farm or origin — Panama was particularly known for clean, soft versions of the type, Costa Rica for equally clean but brighter, more forceful versions, Guatemala for more depth and intrigue, not always so clean, perhaps, but with unexpected sensory surprises arising from less predictable coffee varieties and local variations in processing methods. El Salvador: owing to the widespread cultivation of the classic Bourbon variety and lower growing elevations, lightly stated but slightly more melodic and complex variations on the type than, say, Costa Rica.

Washing channel at a wet mill in Antigua, Guatemala.

These types not only appeared regularly on the menus of specialty coffee roasters as single origins, but contributed to blends as one of the three pillars of standard “all-Arabica” blends of the period — Colombia for body and intensity, Brazil for softening nut and chocolate (and cost savings), and the Central for light-footed vivacity and a lyrical lift.

I expect that among some coffee drinkers, the classic Central profile remains the archetypal taste of coffee. Both the cup similarities among Central America coffee types and their relatively subtle differences arose from the same sources. Similar because of similar processing methods (fruit removal by ferment and washing before drying the beans) and similar tree varieties (all derived ultimately from a few trees brought from Yemen to the rest of the world in the early 18th century). Their differences? Variations in details of processing and differences among those closely related tree varieties: sturdy, straightforward Caturra in Costa Rica, more complex and variable Bourbon in El Salvador, for example. Plus, there was consensus all along the supply chain — from growers to coffee mills to exporters to importers and roasters — about how each of these regional variations on the Central America cup should taste, and all of the actors in the supply chain supported these variations on a theme through their choices.

The Different Overtakes the Classic

Those who have followed the high end of the specialty coffee market over the last decade know roughly what happened to change all that. Above all, a new enthusiasm for the different and striking among specialty roasters and their customers: We want Ethiopias because they are more intensely floral and fruit-toned than those regular old Centrals. We want dried-in-the-fruit or natural processed coffees because they are big, fruity and often alcohol-toned. We want honey-processed coffees because they taste different and “anaerobic” coffees fermented in oxygen-depriving tanks and bags because they taste even more different.

This trend toward cup differentiation has been abetted by accidents of history: by the rediscovery of the extraordinary Geisha variety growing in Panama in 2004, for example. True Panama Geishas made a classic Central America cup produced from trees of the familiar varieties grown in Central America like Typica, Caturra, or even Bourbon taste a little like a coffee version of Budweiser or an art-opening white wine. Then, add all of the new processing wrinkles — naturals, honeys, etc. — to the already strikingly different-tasting Geisha, and you have a range of coffee expressions almost calculated to make the classic Central America washed cup seem, well, forgettable.

Abetted by Rust and Low Prices

All of this change was intensified by a succession of disastrous developments at origin in Central America and Mexico: First, the coffee leaf rust epidemic starting in 2012, which drastically reduced production while outright destroying entire coffee farms and districts. On the back of the rust came a catastrophic decrease in price paid for — yes, that same benchmark clean Central washed coffee type, a type that has added life and animation to premium blends for decades. In 2020, farmers are likely to be paid around $1 to $1.50 per pound for such clean, standard coffees, an outrageous price, given that in 1997 (based on statistics published by the International Coffee Organization) they were paid an average of $1.89 per pound for that same coffee type. If we figure in an inflation rate of 3% per year, they should be paid somewhere around $3.60 per pound for this meticulously prepared coffee type rather than the insulting pittance they are getting for it now.

If You Can’t Beat’Em, Join’Em

For those Central America growers committed to continuing to produce coffee rather than switching to fruit or macadamia nuts, the path forward probably looks clear enough: Depart from the orthodox. Start producing coffees that taste different from the washed Central norm. Experiment with new processing methods and tree varieties. Leave high-end commodity coffee behind and plunge into the new specialty coffee world.

As example, take the results of the latest Cup of Excellence (COE) green coffee competition in Costa Rica, once a bastion of the clean, bright, familiar Central America washed cup. Of 26 prize-winning coffees in the 2020 COE competition, only five were washed-process. The others were honey-processed (10), reduced oxygen fermentation/anaerobic-processed (seven) and natural-processed (four). Of the 26 winners, 10 were from trees of the Geisha variety and eight from trees of SL-28 or other varieties first developed in Kenya. That means that only 10 of 26 were produced from the more familiar coffee varieties long grown in Costa Rica.

Finally, this Month’s Theme

Why go into this history? Partly because we hope readers may find it interesting, even important, but also because it introduces, finally, the theme of this month’s tasting report: What is happening today with the familiar, once- and maybe still-beloved classic washed Central America cup?

What options are there for the coffee lover who may be put off by natural-processed coffees that taste like brandied cherries or Ethiopias that taste like perfume, or anaerobic-processed coffees that taste like almost anything, including strawberry yogurt or sweet mushrooms or fresh perspiration?

Hey, where’s my coffee? My real coffee, that tastes like coffee used to?

62 Shots at the Classic

Well, that classic cup is still around, though you may need to look for it among all the natural-processed, honey-processed, whatever-processed variations.

Women from Mayan Village Coffee in Chiapas, Mexico, producers of Mr. Espresso’s 92-point Mexico Mayan Village Women’s Lot. Photo courtesy of Mr. Espresso.

We cupped 62 coffees for this month’s report, all washed-process from tree varieties not named Geisha, meaning that these samples were as close as we could get through description alone to the familiar classic washed cup of Central America and Mexico. Of the  62 samples we tested, four were from Mexico, six each from El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua, 10 from Honduras, and an impressive 24 from Guatemala.

Fifteen of the 62 attracted ratings of 92 or higher. One sample, the El Salvador Santa Elena Pacamara, topped the ratings at 94. Six more excellent samples came in at 93 (three Guatemala, two Honduras and one El Salvador), and eight more at 92 (three Guatemala, two Honduras, and one each from El Salvador, Costa Rica and Mexico).

Women sorting coffee cherry in Antigua, Guatemala.

The fact that we received the highest number of classic washed samples from Guatemala and Honduras should be no surprise for industry insiders since, for different historical reasons, these two origins tend to be more traditional than other Central American industries, with a bit less emphasis on experiment and change. Guatemala, in particular, has been inclined to stick with respected old-fashioned tree varieties (Bourbon, Caturra) and traditional washed processing methods, one of the reasons presumably that we received 24 qualifying samples from Guatemala and six of them did particularly well at 92 to 93. Honduras has generally remained loyal to traditional processing methods, but those methods are largely applied to disease-resistant hybrid varieties not known for their distinctive cup character. Nevertheless, we reviewed two outstanding Honduras samples at 93 and two more at 92.

However, Costa Rica and Panama have pretty much gone all-out for experiment and change, largely leaving the traditional washed cup behind. We did receive six qualifying samples from Panama, one of which nosed up toward 92, but the focus of the Panama industry today appears to be alternative processing methods and, above all, Geisha, Geisha and Geisha. In Costa Rica, owing mainly to environmental regulations that make traditional washed processing too expensive for small producers, processing variations are the rule, regardless of variety. Costa Rica, in particular, has led the recent innovations in honey processing (removing the skins from the beans but drying them inside all or most of the fruit flesh). The success of the six El Salvador samples (one each at 94, 93 and 92) is most likely founded on El Salvador producers’ continued loyalty to distinguished tree varieties: Bourbon, Pacamara, and, increasingly, varieties introduced from Kenya.

Half-Full, Half-Empty

For the hypothetical lover of the classic Central America cup, these results suggest a glass either half-full or half-empty.

From the half-empty perspective, those samples we did not review, those that came in in the middle ranges of 88 through 90, say, were satisfactory enough, solid coffees, but lagged mainly because they didn’t have enough aromatic complication, or weren’t juicy and lively enough in acidity and structure. They were poised but too plain. Rather than expressing a transcendent balance that comes from a surprising surfeit of the familiar, they just came across as, well, familiar.

But from the half-full point of view, there were plenty of balanced, bright, vivacious cups among those we reviewed, many with deepening savory underpinnings, all subtly different but reassuring familiar in their broad coffee expression.

Fredy Morales of Finca Rosma in Guatemala’s Huehuetenango Department. Courtesy of Corvus Coffee.

Glance through the reviews and you will see an expansive range of sensory excitement, from the tropical orchid and tamarind lean of the Corvus Guatemala El Plan Rosma (93) to the savory chocolate and spice of Kaldi’s Guatemala Carlos Rivas (93) to the deep-toned, pineapple-centered fruit of the Atom Guatemala Bella Carmona (93). In structure, there are more commonalities than differences, but pleasing ones. Often a tendency toward the classically bright and juicy is juxtaposed against a savory depth, frequently complicated by spice or aromatic wood (GK El Salvador Santa Elena Pacamara, 94). With other samples, a brightly juicy structure flat-out drives the cup from the get-go (Triple Coffee Olvin Valle Honduras, 93; Bird Rock El Salvador Las Mercedes La Avila, 93).

These are all variations on the great classic cup of Mexico south to Panama, a cup that gives us comforting familiarity with quiet, though limitless variation. May it endure.

The post The Fate of a Classic: Washed Central America Coffees appeared first on Coffee Review.