Region : Huila
Varietal : Sidra
Process : Natural Double Fermentation - 80+ hours anaerobic fermentation / 40+ hours oxidation
Altitude : 1,700 - 1900masl
All hand sorted / roasted separately / packed separately
This Colombian coffee is a replication of how 2022 Australian Brewers Cup Champion 'Harry Go' utilised for his first World Brewers Cup that none of the other roasters was able to do due to its high level of labour and low efficiency.
This Sidra lot from El Diviso is a mixture of normal beans and activated beans. If purchased and roasted without sorting, the result turns very differently from when sorting is done. Because partial sour beans tend to have lower density and hardness than the others, roasting or brewing should be applied accordingly.
This Package consists of two differently roasted coffee beans so you can play around and experience what Harry tries to deliver to the world.
- 80g of normally processed Sidra roasted based on its density and heat resistance
- 30g of 'activated beans'(partial sour bean) hand-sorted from the whole batch and differently roasted based on its density and heat resistance.
As giving some additional information about the reason why he names it 'activated beans',
- in term of fermentation of coffee beans, it can be categorised to be two fermentation - fermentation on the surface of the beans, and fermentation inside the beans.
To be protected from microbes or bacteria, there is a defensive system generated by seeds itself, called phytic acid, so it is very hard for those foreign microorganisms to penetrate into the seeds. However, under certain circumstances, embryos can die, and the phytic acid is no longer produced by the seeds, microbes starts eating away inside coffee beans, which Harry means 'microbes are in, and inner fermentation is activated' and a dented mark on the tip of green bean is the sign that the embryo is dead and the colour is yellowish which specialty coffee industry consider it to be one of the categorised secondary defect as partial sour bean.
According to Harry Go, normal Sidra has very clean fruity/ rose reminding profiles. Also, activated Sidra has chocolaty/ boozy profiles in it. This is where all his ideas behind were created. Besides, he wants to demonstrate how this defective coffee can articulate excellent specialty coffee quality to the world.
Thus, he determined to serve both coffee as a blend with a certain ratio, it made him win Austrailan Brewers cup, also he placed 8th at the world championship. He dosed 11g of normal coffee in the dripper, and started brewing. Then he added 5g of 'activated bean' in the middle of brewing to shorten its contact time with the water. He then created a beautifully clean coffee with some extra tropical fruity layers.
We also discussed with Harry after his competitions, and determined to serve this quality to anyone out of the competition to be able to experience how this could have changed coffee people's perceptions, and eventually helped the farmers produce higher volume at the origin level.
We truly admire his work for the last 7 years to spread his discovery. After he completed his competition in October 2022, now he is facing a new challenge. Harry and his wife are putting things together for own cafe opening, called The Flour Melbourne on 199 Victoria Street West Melbourne.
It is a light roast, thus the intensity of the brewed coffee would not be such a challenge to even non-coffee drinkers.
This rose / strawberry-like coffee is very clean.
- (Always) It shows off distinct strawberry / strawberry cream / dried cranberry
- (Often) It can be developed within the range of beautiful rose-related flavours
- (Often) Tropical fruity cut-through can be perceived such as pineapple / guava
- (sometimes) It can be developed within the range of savoury flavours such as cacao nibs / dark chocolate but in a very subtle way
- (Always) The body is medium to medium-heavy, but its clean attributes entertains us
Also we have found this coffee consistently strawberry, rose petals, and tropical fruity during our production cupping & tasting with plenty of various brewing methods, so most of you are likely to get those as well.
It is roasted specifically for filter coffee, particularly the best on pour-over tools with the special recipe as below.
- Dripper : best with stainless steel V60 unless owning December dripper
- Recommended drinking vessels : a vessel with a narrower and thin rim like red wine glass shaped one
- Grind size : medium(as viewing a clock, 9pm on EK-43)
- Brewing ratio : 1(coffee) to 16.5(brewing water) - it will let you achieve well-balanced cup with high clarity.
- Brewing time : around 01:55 to extract the most pleasant sugar level of this coffee.
- Brewing water : Aqua Pura(sold at IGA) recommended by Harry Go, or soft water below 70 TDS for cleaner cup profiles.
- Brewing water temperature : 92 degrees Celsius.
- Prepare 10g of normal beans ground - medium
- Prepare 3g of activated beans ground - medium
- Dose 10g of normal beans ground in metal V60 with a paper filter
- Carefully and slowly add 30g of the water to evenly saturate the coffee
- Wait for 40 seconds to bloom
- Pour water very slowly to 80g until timer hits 01:00
- Pour to 140g from 01:10 to 01:20
- At 01:25, add 3g of activated coffee at the centre in the cone, and pour the water to 217.5g(as 3g added on the scales) until 01:40
- Draw down by 01:55
- Prepare a recommended drinking vessel as above
- Welcome, judges. Enjoy. Time
We also highly recommend you cupping each component to find out how different those are.
Reminder
- Generally coffee tastes much better and cleaner when at least a week old since roasted.
- Operate the camera app on your mobile, then place the QR code in the screen for additional information of the coffee.