We would like to present you the coffee with which our roaster Jakub took second place in the filter coffee competition – Czech Brewers Cup 2024.
We picked and processed the competition lot ourselves in Colombia and it was only 4 kilograms in size. Oscar and his family are the behind this lot, but the process remains unchanged.
The Farm:
Los Nogales Farm is a family business, so it is difficult to talk about just one name. But for us, the charismatic Oscar Hernandez, the leader of the project, represents the farm. Oscar is a third generation farmer who grows coffee in the south of the department of Huila, near the town of Bruselas. He is an energetic, always positive and innovative person, not only for his family but also for the wider environment. His father, Ricaurte Hernandez, was the first to prove what we already know today, that in Bruselas you can find the best coffees from all over Colombia. In 2006 he won the Colombian Cup of Excellence and, as the locals say, he got the word out. Ricaurte has “put” Bruselas, and with it the entire department of Huila, on the map of fine coffee. Oscar continues this tradition, and thanks to him and his approach, Los Nogales is a center of innovation and information for all the proactive farmers in the area.
The three pillars of the Finca Los Nogales approach:
1. Terroir – the land gives us life and gives it to the coffee plants that grow on it. Los Nogales is aware of this. If we just exploit the land and don’t take care of it, we will soon have no place to grow coffee. In contrast to intensive farming and the conventional approach to fertilization, the entire Los Nogales team is thinking about long-term sustainability. They are replacing commercial intensive single-component fertilizers with complex organic humus processed from their own coffee processing residues. They are also gradually planting the coffee plants further apart on the plantations, reducing the demands on the land. While less intensive, but also less concentrated and more complex cultivation yields less in the short term, it ensures that in the long term the same land can be used to grow coffee for generations to come.
Bourbon Pimienta is a quite recently discovered variety in Colombia. Originally from Ethiopia. It is interesting for its red fruit flavour, light spiciness and floral notes reminding of the Geisha variety.
Processing:
The procedure was as follows:
Harvesting of ripe fruit only
Visual and density grading
Thermal shock is then used, where the beans are given a heat shock of 80 °C water for 20 seconds and then quickly cooled with cold water. This process breaks down the sugars and pasteurises the beans, which helps the final taste of the coffee.
After pulping, the pulp is squeezed and the juice is added back to the coffee beans (mosto method).
At the beginning of the fermentation process, lactic yeasts are added to the beans to add unique characteristics to the coffee. The fermentation process takes 120 hours. During this time, the sugars are broken down, which affects the flavor and acidity of the coffee.
Finally, the fermented coffee beans are dried in the sun for 15 days.
Recipe:
For the competition, I mixed my own water to enhance the final taste. But it will be enough if you use water slightly harder.
I used a plastic Origami dripper with a Hario conical shaped paper filter for a slower flow.
The plastic material heats up faster and holds temperature.
Coffee: 16,6 g
Water: 250 ml
grinding: coarse – 900 μm (30 clicks per Comandante)
4 pours every 30 seconds – 40, 70, 70, 70
The pours are circular. The last 20 ml of the last three pours are central to increase extraction.
Total extraction time: 2:30
water temperature: 93 °C
I ground the coffee coarser to bring out the fruity component in the coffee and to reduce the strong flavour of the ferment. You can play with the grinding quite a bit, as the coffee flows quickly even on a fine grind (about 18 clicks on the Comandante)
Final performance:
