CJ1021 - Colombia Las Margaritas Red Bourbon Fully Washed Crown

Jewel September 7, 2016 | See This Coffee Online Here 

Finca Las Margaritas is located in the municipal district of Caicedonia in the Valle de Cauca department of Colombia. Valle de Cauca shares a border with Tolima on the East and Cauca to the south; its western coast includes the port of Buenaventura, through which a large quantity of the country’s coffee is exported. The farm has a little less than 7 hectares dedicated to growing the Red Bourbon variety, and they’ve numbered their trees at around 23,000. Their wet mill is outfitted with eco-pulpers, mechanical demucilage machines that can be calibrated to strip varying

degrees of cherry skin and pulp away from the seeds with very little to no water. Finca Las Margaritas adds a fermentation stage after depulping, usually between 17-20 hours with regular agitation to avoid unevenness. The coffee is then mechanically dried under closely monitored conditions to avoid too much heat.

Grower: Finca Las Margaritas Process: Eco-pulped, fermented, washed, and dried in mechanical dryers.

Region: Caicedonia, Valle de Cauca, Colombia Cultivar: Red Bourbon

Altitude: 1510 - 1700 masl Harvest: January - May 2016

Green Analysis by Chris Kornman Bourbon, one of Arabica’s two commonly grown heirloom varieties (the other being Typica), traces its history back to the island that was once its namesake, now a French department known as Réunion, off the coast of the African continent East off the much larger island of Madagascar. Red is the dominant genotype for Bourbon, and was once the most commonly grown Arabica variety in the Americas. While still fairly common, it has been outpaced en masse with higher-yielding, more disease resistant trees. The high quality of the Bourbon cultivar is frequently identified by its citric acidity. This lot is fairly dense, with roughly 90% of the coffee above screen 16, and is just a shade out of spec from being a true Supremo. The moisture content is spot on, though the lot has a slightly higher than average water activity, not uncommon for Colombian coffees of high sensory quality.

 

 CJ1021 - Colombia Las Margaritas Red Bourbon Fully Washed Crown

Jewel September 7, 2016 | See This Coffee Online Here 

Screen Size Percent Density (freely settled)

>19 9.57%  0.681 g/mL

18 21.30% 

17 35.19%  Total Moisture Content

16 22.83%  10.9%

15 9.87% 

14 0.83%  Water Activity

≤13 0.40%  0.59

Roast Analysis by Chris Kornman This was a really fun coffee to roast and cup. I resolved to try a longer, slower, darker roast and a quick, hot roast, testing its flexibility. In both cases, the coffee lagged early in the roast and needed encouragement (read: heat) to develop. With the shorter roast (PR-0304) I was able to back off a little after first crack and landed a solid, bright and juicy drip-style coffee boasting a lot of citrus and tropical fruit notes and acidity not unlike a vibrant Kenya. The longer roast, PR-0303, took a very steady rate-of-rise and a long post-crack development and brought out more caramelized sugar notes and darker fruits - syrupy like molasses, sweet like a plum.

 

 CJ1021 - Colombia Las Margaritas Red Bourbon Fully Washed Crown

Jewel September 7, 2016 | See This Coffee Online Here 

PR-0303 (red) PR-0304 (blue)

TIME BEAN TEMPERATURE COMMENT TIME BEAN TEMPERATURE COMMENT

0:00  374.2 °F  2 gas  0:00  377.3 °F  2.5 gas 0:32  198.2 °F  Turning Point  0:29  202 °F  Turning Point 2:07  285.1 °F  2.25 gas  2:19  305.5 °F  2.75 gas 

3:13  317.9 °F  2.5 gas  3:08  333.4 °F 

Maillard Reactions Begin 

3:37  326.5 °F Maillard

Reactions Begin  6:00  388.4 °F  3 gas 

6:12  362.3 °F  2.75 gas  6:28  395.1 °F  First Crack Begins 8:33  386.6 °F  3 gas  6:50  399.8 °F  2.75 gas 

8:47  388.6 °F First Crack

Begins  7:38  405.2 °F  2.5 gas 

10:10  401.0 °F  2.75 gas  7:49  407.3 °F  End 11:11  408.2 °F  End    °F End Roast

 

Drying Stage 3:37 / 32.34%   Drying Stage 3:08 / 40.09%

Maillard Reaction 5:10 / 46.20%   Maillard Reaction 3:20 / 42.64%

Post-Crack Development 2:24 / 21.46%   Post-Crack Development 1:21 / 17.27%

Weight Loss 15.79%   Weight Loss 13.95%

 

 CJ1021 - Colombia Las Margaritas Red Bourbon Fully Washed Crown

Jewel September 7, 2016 | See This Coffee Online Here 

Colortrack 62.93   Colortrack 58.94

Brew Analysis by Evan Gilman Again tackling our Crown Jewel selections this week with a multi-prong approach, we brewed and tasted through Chris’ roasts as a team. While our techniques varied slightly from person to person, we found our tasting notes to be fairly calibrated.

Overwhelmingly present in all the brews was a tart, mouthwatering cherry note. As you can see below, we brewed these coffees for various lengths of time and at different grind settings, while maintaining the same brew ratio. The last brew was the exception; this was a Kalita brew at a 1:15 ratio, which resulted in a higher extraction percentage in the brewed coffee.

Brew Dose Grind H2O Time TDS Extraction % Notes

PR303 40 10 640g 4:46 1.28 18.56 Cherry, vanilla, rose hip, lemon

PR304 40 10 641g 7:00 1.25 18.17 Cherry, almond, blood orange, cranberry

PR304 40 8.5 638g 5:27 1.39 20.11 Cocoa nib, hibiscus, tangerine, molasses

PR304 30 8 450g 4:15 1.56 21.04 Cocoa nib, lime, honeydew, cherry

Independent of what you’re looking for, this coffee has plenty of dimension, and something to satisfy everyone. As Chris noted above, the shorter and faster roast was bright and juicy - something we all love on the Crown Team. On the other hand, the longer roast had lots of developed sugars that would please those with a sweet tooth. We focused on the lighter and brighter roast for the brew analysis, If you’re into it, see what kind of sugary alternate dimensions you can find in this flexible coffee!