Dear coffee subscriber,
This month I have selected three very sweet and comforting coffees for you.
The Los Pirineos Bourbon is a really good representation of the Bourbon cultivar grown at Los Pirineos. If you are in to coffees that taste like milk chocolate with nuts and dried fruits then you are in for a treat. I love how well it contrasts the two coffees from Finca Tamana too. It makes the fruity flavours in the Tamana coffees really stand out. As always I highly recommend tasting them side by side if you have the chance and I really hope you will enjoy them.
Warm regards from Tim & team Wendelboe.
Los Pirineos - Bourbon (1st & 4th bag)
Flavour notes
Chocolate, hazelnuts & dried fruits
Producer
Diego Baraona
Harvest
February 2023
Origin
Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process
Honey
Cultivar
Bourbon Elite
This is a very clean honey processed Bourbon coffee that is a good representation of the Bourbon coffees grown at Los Pirineos. It has a lot of the milk chocolaty notes you often find in the Bourbon coffees in Brazil, but with more intensity and concentration of flavour. The coffee has distinct flavours of chocolate, roasted nuts and dried fruits. I love drinking this coffee when I want something sweet and comforting or to use it in a tasting as a contrast to the fruity and floral coffees we often have on our menu from Kenya and Ethiopia.
Gilberto Baraona named his bourbon trees «Bourbon Elite» as these trees are very old and are considered to be among the original Bourbon trees that were planted in El Salvador many years ago. I am happy to know that his son Diego, loves these Bourbon coffees as much as I do and say he will focus on producing more of it along with his Pacamara, Sudan Rume and a few other cultivars he has identified to produce unique coffees on his farm.
Finca Tamana SL28 (2nd & 5th bag)
Flavour notes
Red fruits, winey & dark chocolate
Producer
Elias Roa & Bellanid Sanchez
Harvest
May – June 2023
Origin
El Pital, Huila, Colombia
Process
Washed
Cultivar
SL28
I planted these SL28 seeds with Elias in 2013 and the trees were planted in the field in early 2014. Since then we have gradually been able to buy more and more of this coffee.
The SL28 from Finca Tamana is quite subtle in the flavour profile but still has some of the classic SL28 flavours like red berries. It has a lower acidity and an interesting floral and dark chocolate note. I find it to be quite different from the brighter and more intense Kenyan grown SL28 coffees that we sent out last month. Although it is not the most expressive coffee from this farm, it still offers a unique flavour profile that is different from the traditional Caturra, Castillo and varied Colombia cultivars that are the most common coffees grown in Colombia and at Finca Tamana.
Finca Tamana - Caturra (3rd & 6th bag)
Flavour notes
Stone fruit, caramel & red fruits
Producer
Elias Roa & Bellanid Sanchez
Harvest
25th of May 2023
Origin
El Pital, Huila, Colombia
Process
Washed
Cultivar
Caturra
When Elias Roa bought Finca Tamana in 2011 most of the farm was planted with the two cultivars Caturra and Variedad Colombia. Since then the Caturra trees have been attacked by leaf rust almost every year and the quality and production has therefore been a bit up and down. The Variedad Colombia is resistant to leaf rust and has consistently been tasting better compared to the Caturra over the years. That is why we have recommended Elias to replant most of his Caturra trees with either resistant hybrid cultivars or better tasting traditional cultivars like Bourbon and SL28.
There are still a few lots planted with Caturra left on the farm and probably always will be, but since the production is very small and the flavour is very similar to the Variedad Colombia we are normally blending the two based on harvest date and quality. Last harvest however was in general a very good season at Finca Tamana and we identified one lot of Caturra that tasted really good and unique. It made up enough volume so that it made sense to separate them from the Variedad Colombia. That means this lot is from a single day picking from one lot at the farm, picked on the 25th of May. I found this coffee to have a really sweet and smooth texture with subtle notes of stone fruit, red fruits and with the classic «panela» or caramel flavour that the coffees from Huila are so well known for.