Specialty Roast of the Month

We are so excited to finally roast this coffee!  Tropical Splash is one of the more unique coffees we’ve had the privilege of carrying.  It comes from Forest Green Coffee in Colombia who are innovators in coffee processing and in supporting farmers all over Colombia.  This coffee tastes like the first morning of spring break and will impress you with its sweet coconut and guava flavors.

Basics

ORIGIN
Huila, Tolima, & Caldas, Colombia

PRODUCER
Various farms, processed at El Vergel Estate

VARIETY
100% Pink Bourbon

ALTITUDE (MASL)
1750m

Processing

This coffee is a Natural Anaerobic Yeast Assist process with coconut cofermentation.  Let’s break that down.   

First, the coffee cherry (with bean inside) is placed in a fermentation tank with just enough water to cover the cherries (sometimes the fruit is removed first, but this is a natural process so the fruit stays on).  Coconut is added to the mix.  Next, coffee producers introduce yeast to the mix (that’s the yeast assist part).  Then they seal the fermentation tank so that no oxygen can get in (this is the anaerobic part).  The sugars in the fruit feed the yeast, and it ferments for 144 hours.  

During the fermentation process, the yeast breaks down the fruit, nearly removing it from the bean.  The yeast also produces CO2, which builds pressure inside the sealed tank.  The pressure helps to force some of the fruity, fermenty flavors into the bean.  Once fermentation is complete, producers lay the beans out on screens to dry and remove any remaining fruit pulp.  For this coffee, they also dry lemon peels with the beans to add a little citric acid flavor to the finish.  When the beans are dry, they’re ready to be sold and roasted.  

Yeast assist processes create a more consistent flavor from bean to bean, and the anaerobic and natural parts of the process give the bean its fruity flavors, like the lemonade and coconut in Tropical Splash.

Roast Level

Tropical Splash is a City Roast. We pull our City Roasts from the roaster just as the bean turns a chocolatey color. At this stage, the coffee’s authentic flavors shine without any smokiness or oil. This Colombian coffee is on the light side of medium which accentuates the sweetness and fruit.

Traceability

Tropical Splash is fully traceable to farm.

What is Pink Bourbon?

Bourbon is a coffee varietal.  It was first planted by the French on the isle of Bourbon (now called Reunion) off the coast of Madagascar in the 1700s.  It developed here until the mid 1800s, when it was transplanted in Central America, India, and other places.  The Bourbon varietal is a tall plant that produces very high quality coffee.  It is also very susceptible to disease.  So while it was once one of the dominant varieties of coffee in Central America, it has been bred with other varieties to produce more disease resistance.  These Bourbon-related varietals are now more common than Bourbon.

Pink Bourbon was first named by a Colombian farmer who saw it growing on his farm.  The tree had salmon colored berries (the pink) and the farmer assumed it was a hybrid between his red and yellow bourbon plants.  Now here’s the really interesting part:  Pink Bourbon is not a bourbon varietal at all.  Testing in 2023 showed Pink Bourbon was actually an Ethiopian Landrace (wild) variety.  How did it get there?  While it is a mystery, it’s not an uncommon one.  Other varietals in Colombia are also descendants of Ethiopian Landrace coffees, and it’s very possible it was mislabeled as a Gesha.  However it happened, Pink Bourbon is still considered one of the tastiest and most interesting varietals in Colombia.