Washed, Honey, or Natural? You’re likely familiar with these three coffee processing methods… beans are either dried as a cherry (Natural process), just partially milled before drying (Honey process), or fully washed and dried as a seed or “bean” (Washed process). In the past few years, specialty coffee farmers and institutions have been experimenting with even more variations on these methods, trying to achieve more sweetness, body, and complexity in the cup… and this year we encountered a coffee so interesting from a small farmer family in Colombia, that we just had to get it!
Introducing “San Isidro” - an experimental “Double-Fermentated Washed” microlot by the Leguizamo family, who hand picked their best coffees, harvested at peak ripeness and selected for high sugar content (cherries must have over 22% sugar to be suitable for a double fermentation) . This special microlot was first fermented as a cherry, fully washed, and again fermented as a “bean” (parchment), resulting in a richer body and a very interesting sweet, spiced flavor profile. It was finally sun dried in raised beds, milled, packaged in special 20-kilo bags, and flown directly from the farm to the roastery!
This coffee was sourced well beyond our High-Impact threshold, at 400% above the current “fair-trade” price, paid to the farmers - and yes, we were able to buy this microlot in its entirety for our Ethos family! We hope you love this introduction to a new processing method (if you’re a subscriber and get a variety of beans, you’ll definitely get this one next!), and look forward to your thoughts and reviews… we’ll run a little experiment ourselves and update this coffee’s page with any email reviews we get from all of you!
Hope you’re having a wonderful, adventurous summer… ours continues to be filled with joy and gratitude for getting to start each day #BrewingGreatness in the world with you!
Jolian & Lisbeth
P.S. San Isidro was originally planned as a surprise for the Holidays, yet we didn’t anticipate running out of Poaquil… and experiencing months-long delays on the new crop’s arrival - we’re truly sorry, and hope this special microlot makes it up to you a bit!
PS.PS. If you’re in the area on July 29th… we’ll be celebrating the grand opening of “Pressed Coffee” in downtown Lakeland (with special surprises for our Ethos family, of course!)
