For more knowledge about specialty coffee, please pay attention to: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee）
Colombia has a very long history of coffee cultivation. Its superior geographical and climatic conditions provide a unique innate environment for the growth of coffee trees. The coffee production areas span the entire Andes Mountains within the territory. When it comes to specialty coffee, Front Street has to mention that it is located in the Whelan production area, which is often active in various competitions. Front Street Columbia Beans was chosen here.
Whelan(Huila)
The Huilan production area became famous after entering the 21st century. It frequently appeared on the winning lists of various green bean competitions and obtained official origin certification in 2013. The name of the Huilan production area comes from the province of Huilan, which is located in southwestern Colombia, on the side of the Andes Mountains, close to the Huilan volcano. The volcanic ash brought by the volcanic eruption adds fresh nutrients to the soil, which especially benefits the growth of coffee trees. Compared with other production areas, Huilan has year-round rain and moderate temperatures. Such planting conditions allow coffee trees to be planted even at high altitudes of more than 2,000 meters. The coffee produced at high altitudes has bright acidity and chocolate aroma.
Huilan Coffee is mainly produced by small farmers. The local farm area is usually within 1.5 hectares. Managers will plant shade trees to provide a better growing environment and quality assurance for the coffee. Whenever the coffee cherries mature, Colombians will pick the ripest and plump coffee cherries and perform post-processing at the freshest stage to ensure the freshness of the coffee in every step.
Washed Whelan Coffee
Many of the Colombian coffees seen on the market today use special processing methods to present a very specific aroma. Front Street believes that the taste of these coffees is also very good, but if you want to taste the most original aroma of Colombian coffee, Front Street recommends trying the two natural processing methods of washing and sun drying.
Colombia has abundant water resources and is very suitable for washing processing. Family farms will be equipped with special green bean processing machines (Ecomill or Eco-Pulper). Farmers pour the harvested coffee cherries into it, not only removing the peel and pulp, but also requiring only a very small amount of water to remove most of the pectin. The shelled beans with a small amount of pectin remaining will be put into a small pool or container, maybe a tiled pool, and left to ferment overnight to loosen the remaining pectin. The next day, rinse them with clean water, and finally spread them out in the sun to dry to the target moisture content.
The washing process not only ensures the high quality of the coffee, but also allows Whelan coffee to show its own flavor characteristics. This is why Front Street prefers washed batches when selecting ration beans. The coffee variety is collected from Caturra, which is widely grown locally.
kadura
There are many varieties of coffee grown in Colombia, most of which are traditional Arabica varieties, such as Caturra, Bourbon, Typica, Pacamara, etc. Of course, there are also some popular and rare varieties, such as Gesha, which have appeared on the market in small batches in recent years.
Caturra is a natural variety of Bourbon that was discovered in Brazil in 1937. It is very suitable for large-scale planting due to its high yield and better disease resistance. The plants of Caturra are short, easy to harvest, and can remain vibrant even when exposed to the sun. Farmers call it Sun Coffee. Kadura is suitable for planting in low altitude areas of 700 meters to high altitude areas of 1700 meters. It has strong altitude adaptability, but the higher the altitude, the better the flavor and the lower the production capacity.
The washed Whelan ration beans have a soft acidity and a suitable mellowness and sweetness. Front Street hopes to present the classic Colombian nut flavor and retain some acidity, so he chose medium-dark roasting. Before every coffee bean launched by Front Street, it will be cupped and evaluated at least once. Cupping allows us to more objectively reflect the advantages and disadvantages of coffee.
How to brew this ration beans by hand?
Considering that Whelan's ration beans are roasted at medium depth, the flavor tends to be nutty, rich and mellow like chocolate. The deeper roasting makes the texture of the coffee beans looser and the coffee powder is more absorbent, so a medium grinding degree is chosen. In order to avoid extracting too many impurities, Front Street will lower the water temperature a little to a medium temperature of 90 degrees Celsius and use a KONO filter cup for extraction.
Different from the V60 filter cup, the only exhaust part of the KONO filter cup is the quarter rib. When the water level passes through the rib part, the water volume in the filter cup continues to rise, and the pressure is increased by the weight of the water. Since the outlet is relatively small, the contact time between the coffee particles and the water can be extended. With the injection of water flow, soluble substances are more effectively brought out, thereby improving the mellow and rich taste of the coffee.
Brewing parameters: KONO filter cup, water temperature of 90 degrees Celsius, No. 20 standard sieve sieving rate 75% grinding degree, 1:15 powder to water ratio, powder amount: 15 grams, three-stage extraction
Pour the coffee powder into the V60 filter cup, moisten the powder bed with twice the amount of coffee powder, form a drum, and steam for 30 seconds. Then pour water in a small circle from the inside to the outside until it reaches 125g. When the powder bed drops to half of the filter cup, continue to pour the same thin stream of water into the third section to 225g until all the coffee liquid is filtered and take out the filter cup, which takes about 2 minutes.
This Colombian Whelan ration bean has obvious roasted aromas such as chocolate, nuts, caramel, etc. in the mouth. It is smooth and sweet, with moderate mellowness and clean taste. When the temperature is lowered, you can feel the pleasant soft acidity.
For more knowledge about specialty coffee, please pay attention to: Front Street Coffee (Frontsteet Coffee）
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
