Colombia PINK CHAMPAGNE Special Release (12oz)

Country: Colombia Farmer: Elkin Guzman
Region: Huila Farm: El Mirador
Varietal: Catiope
Process: Pink Champagne Anaerobic Washed
Altitude: 1750 Meters
Certification: Direct Trade
Cupping notes: Rosé / Pink Guava / Raspberry Lemonade

CATIOPE PINK CHAMPAGNE PROCESS

Elkin and his team chose the CATIOPE variety for the Pink Champagne process thanks to its quality, yield and good behaviour for experimental techniques, as it presents a good average of 20 Brix degrees. Catiope provides optimal levels of sweetness which allows the micro-organisms such as lactobacillus and saccharomyces cerevisiae to have an optimal fuel to work. An oxygen-depleted (anaerobic) fermentation is generated when both the starter culture and the coffee are mixed and placed into sealed containers for the scheduled fermentation time.

These micro-organisms are initially cultivated separately before incorporating them into the coffee, giving way to a large scale where a significant volume of starter culture is produced.

For this specific process, a total of 80 liters of starter culture is extracted from a 200-liter drum which had been mixed with locally available berries (blueberry, strawberry). This allows the Brix degrees of the initial mix to be equal to that of the coffee cherries.

The starter culture takes 6 days to reach its optimal state, exactly 144 hours of fermentation.
Besides the berries, Elkin feeds the yeasts with spices and sugars until the desired level of fermentation is achieved.

After Catiope cherries are picked from his lots at El Mirador, they get pulped and deposited inside a fully sealed 200-liter plastic can along with the 80 liters of the fermented spiced solution that had been previously prepared.

The coffee starts then to ferment for 144 hours, and the team constantly measures the Brix degrees to not drop below 9 as well as the pH levels which are not allowed to drop below 4: this is the balance point for the coffee in order to highlight the Pink Champagne notes that Elkin is looking for.

*Orders ship Monday-Friday Orders placed after 11am PST Friday will be shipped the following Monday.*