Dear coffee subscriber,
This month I have selected three of my favourite cultivars from Finca Tamana. We started planting rare cultivars together with Elias and Bellanid many years ago and have been selecting and planting more of the ones we like the most, while removing others that do not perform as well.
To learn more about the work we have done over the years at Finca Tamana I highly recommend watching our YouTube video that we made while visiting in August last year. To get the full experience, watch it while drinking this month’s coffees.
Thank you for your support and I hope you like this month’s coffees.
Finca Tamana Caturron (1st & 4th bag)
Flavour notes
Herbal, floral habanero & papaya
Producer
Elias Roa & Bellanid Sanchez
Harvest
May – June 2024
Origin
El Pital, Huila, Colombia
Process
Washed
Cultivar
Caturron
Caturron is a local Colombian cultivar discovered in Huila. Two years ago, I sent a small sample of green beans from this cultivar for DNA testing, and the results suggested that it is a cross between Hibrido de Timor (Arabica x Robusta) and Bourbon or Caturra. This means it is genetically very similar to Variedad Colombia, but the Caturrón cultivar is both distinct and highly uniform, with characteristic oblong beans and good resistance to leaf rust.
Elias and Bellanid planted this cultivar a few years ago to see if it could offer better cup quality, and to my surprise, the flavours were really distinct yet difficult to describe. It had a strong herbal character while also giving fruity notes like tropical fruits. Some of the local cuppers we showcased the coffee to thought it was over-fermented or that something was wrong with the cups, as they had never tasted such a flavour profile in Colombia before. However, after tasting several different pickings and batches, we quickly realised that this was a consistent flavour profile for the coffee.
Personally, I really enjoy its wild and fruity character, which is why I have encouraged Elias and Bellanid to plant more of it. Caturron is undoubtedly a unique coffee with an intense herbal and floral flavour, similar to the notes I often find in habanero chillies (without the heat, of course).
Finca Tamana Bourbon (2nd & 5th bag)
Flavour notes
Winey, red fruits & floral
Producer
Elias Roa & Bellanid Sanchez
Harvest
May 2024
Origin
El Pital, Huila, Colombia
Process
Washed
Cultivar
Red Bourbon & Pink Bourbon (Ethiopian)
We planted these Red Bourbon seeds together with Bellanid and Elias in June 2014, and the trees were planted in a small hill at Finca Tamana in August 2015. Around the same time, Elias received a handful of seeds from a neighbour, some Pink Bourbon, which actually has Ethiopian genetics. The difference is the red and pink colour of the coffee cherries when they are ripe, but they also taste slightly different in the cup where the pink one is slightly more floral and the red one is slightly more fruity.
I am very happy that, so far, this is one of the best coffees we have tasted from Tamana. In fact Bourbon are among my all time favourite coffee cultivars, but they need to be grown in good conditions to taste great. Fortunately, Tamana seems to be a place where Elias and Bellanid can produce really tasty Bourbon coffees and I have encouraged them to plant more of it so that we can buy more of this delicious and juicy coffee in the future.
Finca Tamana Java (3rd & 6th bag)
Flavour notes
Floral, stone fruit & green tea
Producer
Elias Roa & Bellanid Sanchez
Harvest
May – June 2024
Origin
El Pital, Huila, Colombia
Process
Washed
Cultivar
Java
I planted half a hectare of Java cultivars together with Elias and Bellanid some years ago as an experiment to see if the coffee would taste good on their farm.
Java is often called «Geisha’s little sister» as it can be quite delicate and floral in its flavour profile. However, I have tasted several Java coffees in the past that are quite ordinary to say the least, but the Java from Finca Tamana has thasted super sweet, floral and delicate like green tea in the past two harvests. It is now among my favourite coffees from this farm and we have asked Elias and Bellanid to plant more of it so we can get more in the future.