Dear subscriber,
Continuing last month’s theme, we are sending out three new coffees from Finca Tamana. I believe both the Bourbon and the Caturrón are among the best coffees currently being grown at the farm. They certainly have very distinct flavour profiles and are both much more intense than the traditional Caturra cultivar that used to be so common in Colombia.
This month, you will be able to enjoy some of the fruits of the labour we have invested in Tamana since we started working with Elias and Bellanid in 2012. Hopefully, you will be able to taste the improvements represented by these new cultivars that we have introduced there.
Finca Tamana Bourbon (1st & 4th bag)
We planted these Red Bourbon seeds together with Bellanid and Elias in June 2014, and the trees were planted on a small hillside at Finca Tamana in August 2015.
At the same time, Elias had obtained a handful of seeds from a neighbour of a Pink Bourbon variety (which actually has Ethiopian genetics).
The most obvious difference is the red and pink colour of the coffee cherries when ripe, but they also taste slightly different in the cup. The Pink Bourbon tends to be slightly more floral, while the Red Bourbon is generally a little fruitier.
I am very happy to say that this is, so far, one of the best coffees we have tasted from Tamana. In fact, Bourbon cultivars are among my all-time favourites, although they need to be grown under good conditions to truly shine.
Fortunately, Tamana appears to be a place where Elias and Bellanid can produce exceptional Bourbon coffees, and I have encouraged them to plant more so that we can purchase greater quantities of this delicious and juicy coffee in the future.
Finca Tamana Caturrón (2nd & 5th bag)
Caturrón 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 suggest that it is a cross between Híbrido de Timor (Arabica × Robusta) and either Bourbon or Caturra. This means it is genetically very similar to Variedad Colombia.
However, Caturrón is both distinct and remarkably uniform, with characteristic oblong beans and good resistance to leaf rust.
Elias and Bellanid planted this cultivar a few years ago to see whether it could offer improved cup quality and, to my surprise, the flavours were extremely distinctive, although somewhat difficult to describe. It tasted intensely herbal while also displaying fruity, tropical characteristics.
Some of the local cuppers to whom we presented the coffee thought it was over-fermented or that there was something wrong with the cups, as they had never encountered a flavour profile like this in Colombia before. After tasting several different pickings and batches, we quickly realised that this was a consistent characteristic of the cultivar.
I personally really enjoy the flavours and find them both wild and fruity, which is why I have encouraged Elias and Bellanid to plant more of it. Caturrón is certainly a very distinctive coffee, with an intense herbal and floral character reminiscent of flavours I often find in habanero chillies (without the heat, of course).
Finca Tamana Caturra (3rd & 6th bag)
When Elias Roa bought Finca Tamana in 2011, most of the farm was planted with two cultivars: Caturra and Variedad Colombia.
Since then, the Caturra trees have been affected by leaf rust almost every year, and quality and production have therefore fluctuated considerably. Variedad Colombia, on the other hand, is resistant to leaf rust and has consistently performed better in the cup than Caturra over the years.
For this reason, we have recommended that Elias gradually replace most of his Caturra trees with either disease-resistant hybrid cultivars or higher-quality traditional cultivars such as Bourbon and SL28.
There are still a few plots of Caturra remaining on the farm, and there probably always will be. However, because production is very limited and the flavour profile is quite similar to that of Variedad Colombia, we normally blend the two based on harvest date and quality.
During the last harvest, we identified six small lots of Caturra that tasted particularly good. Together, they represented enough volume to justify keeping them separate from the Variedad Colombia.
This lot therefore consists of coffee picked on six individual days from a single plot on the farm. I found this coffee to have a wonderfully sweet and smooth texture, with subtle notes of red fruits and the classic panela or caramel sweetness for which coffees from Huila are so well known.
