Why We Love This Coffee:
Edwin has combined the generational knowledge learned from his father and grandfather, a university degree in agronomy, and a Coffee Quality Institute Q-Grader Certification to produce coffees that are simply unlike any others. This particular lot was harvested at over 20 degrees Brix and soaked for 2 hours to clean and sort. The cherries were then put into a low-oxygen environment for 24 hours at about 20 degrees Celsius to promote specific microbial growth, which then control which chemical reactions take place during fermentation, which has a dramatic impact on the final flavor profile of the coffee.
The cherries then underwent carbonic maceration for 72 hours, from which a mossto (coffee cherry juice) was collected. The cherries were then pulped to the black honey level (most of the pulp remained surrounding the beans). The mossto was inoculated with a specific yeast starter culture and then was fermented with powdered enigma hops and the partially pulped cherries/beans. Finally, the coffee was sun dried in greenhouse with controlled conditions for 10 days and then stored in a controlled environment at 18 degrees Celsius with 65% humidity.
The result in the cup is simply incredible. It tastes like a piña colada (but not boozy/funky) - bright pineapple juice with rich, sweet coconut, and a little hint of spicy hot pepper.
Because of the more significant breakdown of the cell structure during the processing, you don't need to rest it for very long at all, so we recommend getting started brewing right away!
Water Recommendation:
For those of you who want to get every last drop of excellence out of this coffee, our preferred brewing water is full-strength Third Wave Water (130ppm GH, 40ppm KH).
Full-strength Third Wave Water gives the most intensity of flavor and the most coconut cream-like sweetness.
Half-strength Third Wave Water (65ppm GH, 20ppm KH - very similar to Lance Hedrick’s Light & Bright water) gives a less intense, more acid-driven cup profile. It leans more towards just tasting like pineapple than a mixture of pineapple and coconut.
Rao/Perger water (90ppm GH, 42ppm KH) is also excellent, probably our second favorite water for this coffee. As is often the case when we do these different water cuppings for our Black Label series coffees, this water gives the most complex flavor profile but it’s just slightly less sweet than full-strength TWW.
Philadelphia water (Baxter water supply) filtered with a three-stage carbon system with a little softening (somewhat similar to what a Brita pitcher would do) still gives an amazing cup profile, very similar to Rao/Perger water, but the finish fades a bit quicker than it does with Rao/Perger water.
If this is all very confusing—check out our blog post on water for coffee!
