Rotating Single Origin: February
For the month of February we have chosen to highlight a Carbonic Maceration Guatemala coffee using an Chemex brewing method. Find this coffee on our order page, here.
Farm:
These Guatemala Blue Ayarza beans come from Laguna de Ayarza (lake Ayarza) which is a crater lake in the Santa Rosa department of Guatemala. Laguna de Ayarza has been around for 20,000 years initially formatted by a volcanic eruption, being 30 minutes away from the processing site it is succlued and sitting at around 1,400masl(meters above sea level). More than 1000 small local farmers bring coffee to this processing site.
Roasting:
The Plan:
So… this being our first carbonic maceration coffee to actually throw in the Probat, we didn’t have a whole lot to go off of. However, there is one theory I have about extended fermented coffee that I believe allows us to make some assumptions and help get us started. So I have a suspicion that this coffee is going to behave more like a natural processed bean, as opposed to a honeyed or washed coffee. The reason for this being, during the extended fermentation, I think this ‘jump starts’ the chemical/development process of the organic materials in the coffee (the same processes it goes through in the roaster) in the same way that naturally processing coffee sort of jump starts the germination process of the coffee, which sends it partially down the development phase. I’m not 100% sure this is the way, but I feel strongly enough about it to start us off with a natural processed profile to use as a background to roast off of for our first few batches.
Execution:
Speaking of first roasts, we decided to start things off with a 6lb batch. Which… did not go so well. Typically, the smallest batches we do for production are 12 lbs., but since we were only able to secure 1, 132lb bag of this stuff, so we were trying to get away with a small batch first roast. Unfortunately for us, it had been so long since we had roasted a 6lb batch, the numbers just didn’t match up and the roast stalled out entirely too long during the mallards portion of the roast cycle. The result was a coffee that was both flat and savory with just barely a hint of some nice cherries and grape flavors.
It was actually a fairly decent cup of coffee but both Deacon and I felt we hadn’t done the coffee justice. Since we so seldom roast 6lb batches, we weren’t sure if the weird roast was a result of the coffee behaving different in the roaster or we were just rusty. Instead of wasting more of this particular coffee trying to answer this question we just jumped straight in with a 12lb batch using a profile from the Natural DR Congo we developed a few months back ( I really like this profile for natural Africans and use it a lot to start roasts off for the first time). I like this roast for the level of development as well as the balance between acidic, bitter and sweet flavors in the coffee. It should allow us to get a idea of what we are working with. This roast went much much better than the first and is shown below.
The end temp did creep up on us a bit at the end as opposed to what we were intending but the timing and development were fairly spot on. When brewed this cup was completely changed and better than our first batch. This time the sweetness and fruity flavors were prominent above all else. The coffee is a bit of a blueberry bomb and then has some nice cherry cola like notes underneath that. The intensity reminds me a lot of a robust red wine, like a Malbec or Rhone Valley, which is maybe just me knowing the process and projecting, but feels accurate.
The Process:
There are many types of coffee processing that can be done to get to the final result of the green coffee bean in which roasters desire. A few well known options for farmers are natural-dry processed, washed processed, and honey/pulped processed while these three processes each have their own detailed method, there are a few “new” types of processing that farmers have recently been experimenting with such as Carbonic Maceration and Anaerobic coffee processing, and while it depends on if it makes sense for the farm/farmers to invest in trying out different processing methods some have had delicious results. This month's coffee uses a carbonic maceration process, a processing that is very common among wine producers. Basically what it means is that instead of pulping the coffee cherry off the bean before adding it to an airtight fermentation tank with a one way valve to release gasses from off gassing. The cherry is left on inside of the tank thus making the fermentation processes longer (days or weeks compared to the “typical” 48 hour fermentation for pulped coffees) providing the beans with interesting and distinct flavors of rich, fruity and molasses-like. Carbonic maceration processing is extremely common with in the wine industry and now being introduced into the coffee fields, it can be a risk to take on experimenting with different processing, being unsure of how the coffee will react thus risking the entire batch, and then one's livelihood., however it can be a beneficial experiment to partake in if there is room to do so. As carbonic maceration is typically a higher price point for farmers. This specific farm (Blue Ayarza) uses carbonic maceration processes for around 40 hours on the Guatemalan cherries/beans and then sun dried for 1-2 weeks making it a hybrid processing of carbonic maceration and natural processing.
Brew Time:
This month we decided to use a chemex brewing method to capture the sweetness alongside the fruity notes while keeping the flavors clean and well defined.
The Chemex was created in 1941 by chemist Dr. Peter Schlumbohm PhD, while he created multitude of different devices for all sorts of easier functionality the Chemex is one of his finest coffee related inventions. With its hourglass shape which is pleasing to the eye, the angles and heat retention for brewing is best when desiring a clean and simple brew. Chemexes tend to highlight floral and bright notes in coffees. With its sleek design it holds a permanent spot at the MOMA art museum.
What you need:
Chemex brew container
Chemex Filter
Grinder
30g of coffee
Hot water just off the boil (about 205°F)
Scale
Timer
Stir stick
Mug
Brewing Procedure:
Grind size is in between table salt and kosher salt depending on the grinder, the setting will vary from home to home. We found that using a 1:15 ratio of coffee to water worked best for this roast and coffee.
Prepare set ratio of 1:15 for example 30g of ground coffee to 450ml of water
Grind between 5-0 min before brewing to ensure all flavors stay inside the cup
Pre wet the filter to remove any papery taste and to preheat chemex
Add coffee grinds to filter in chemex making sure the coffee is level across
Add 60-80ml of hot water (198-205°f) to the grinds until fully wet
Stir or swirl coffee bed to ensure no dry coffee is present
Let bloom for 25-40 sec depending on roast and freshness of coffee (this helps all the oils and acids within the coffee to be released)
Stir or swirl coffee bed to ensure no dry coffee is present
After the bloom Pour counter-clockwise.( This will create more turbulence in the coffee bed which will create better extraction.) In a continuous motion at a constant rate until desired gram outage is achieved
Slowly add water until scale reads desired outage (no pauses besides bloom pause)
End time should be anywhere from 4min-5min depending
Swirl, Pour and drink!
Tasting Notes
The tasting notes on this coffee using a 1:15 ratio at a 3 minute 55 second brew time is as follows:
Merlot
Pomegranate
Passionfruit
Blueberry scone
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