Andres Martinez is a producer quickly making a name for himself for his innovative multi-staged and yeast-inoculated processing methods. This coffee lot is an excellent example of that. He transforms a classic citric-forward caturra into a complex, floral delicacy. In brewing, we found flavors reminiscent of grapefruit, clementine, jasmine, lavender, and honey / honeysuckle.
This coffee launched on November 14th as part of Drop 4!
Andres Martinez started his coffee career at Tecnicafé, an institute in Cauca focusing on coffee research and innovation. Later, he worked a short time under Diego Bermudez on soil studies and process standardization. He was also a Biomechanical Engineer is a past-life, before transitioning to specialty coffee. At just 29, he now owns two farms of his own, growing varietals such as Geisha, Chiroso, Pink Bourbon, Polisperma, and Caturra.
This is a classic Columbian Caturra. Caturra is originally a genetic bourbon mutation from Brasil. Read more from World Coffee Research (https://varieties.worldcoffeeresearch.org/varieties/caturra).
Andres's semi-washed Caturra Floral is a fantastic representation of all of his past study. It's an innovative process that includes 48 hours of beer yeast inoculated fermentation, a dry de-pulping process, and then another closed tank fermentation for 48 hours. Even his drying process is a multi-staged sun-drying process where seeds are carefully exposed to more sun every 5 days for 12-18 days, depending on weather.
This was by far the most distinct coffee we cupped in recent times. Our pre-ship sample had strong earl grey, a very lactic creamy body and citric acidity. In profiling, the cup changed quite a bit. The processing is really interesting as it adds a violet/lavender like floral quality -- likely due to the mossto stage of the process. Jasmine is also very present on top of a classic Colombia caturra profile.
Green cost: $21.12/kg ($1.32/kg tariff)
Package and roasting costs: $2.31/bag; $10/kg
Profile and sample use: ~3.2kg
Approx. Margin: 29.52%
We've really found this coffee versatile, but the florals are loudest in 6 bar shots and faster, finer ground pourovers. We recommend resting this coffee at least 18 days, and expect it to peak at 20-25 days post roast.
Temperature range: 200-204°F
Water: Tap/Demineralized and Third Wave Water Light Roast
Grind Settings: Medium Coarse (600-650µm)
Target Drawdown Time: 2:35-2:55
4 Pour Recipe:
1/4 water every 30 seconds. Swirl dripper on first and third pours.
We struggled a bit profiling this coffee. We sent out a few ultralights on our first go around and were really liking the direction it was headed. It had notes of calpico, white gummy bears, and some nice lemon. As it rested though, the yeast notes were SO LOUD. The other hard part was that, in our opinion, the pre-shipment sample roast was outshining our profiling. It was a totally different tasting coffee... and we're still unsure why! We suspect slight variation in fermentation in our lot verses the pre-shipment lot. This is normal. Fermentation is wild, and climate is mostly uncontrollable. There will always be lot variation.
The biggest difference in roasting this coffee versus classic washed was it became really obvious that yeast was involved in the process when roasting our classic "hot and fast" method. We reached out to friends for some advice and the most common feedback we received was that other roasters usually charged a little less hot for Colombia Caturra (thanks Sophia at Unblended and Max from Brainwave). As a result, this roast lasted significantly longer than our classic light profile. This profile is almost a light-medium by our classification. The body is bolder and there is a sense of roast character on this coffee.
We thought this was the best representation of this coffee on our Proaster roast environment though. With the right grind setting and water temperature you can brew out the bitter and still get smacked with the heavy florals this coffee has to offer. We are very happy to have bought Andres's coffee and cannot wait to see what he has in store for us next harvest.
Sensory Feedback
(Cupping) 1 day off of roast
Very gassy and murky. Orange at hot, and some brown, think bergamot, clementine, grapefruit pith. As it cools, it turns yellow and white, like lemon peel jasmine, honeysuckle, creamy, and sweet.
(Brewing) 3 days off of roast
Clementine, lemon peel, jasmine, bergamot?, creamy, super sweet honey. At warm, super strong lavender and clementine. At cool, lemon peel, and more jasmine and honeysuckle.
(Brewing) 9 days off roast
12g dose, 202°F water, 2:45 drawdown, high agitation pours (8-10g/s), 50g every 30s to 200g
Finer: Grapefruit, heavy citric acid, clementine, angostura, bubbly, dank.
Coarser: Clementine, lemon peel, jasmine, honeysuckle, creamy, super sweet. At cool down, super strong lavender and clementine.
(Brewing) 20 days off roast
15g:250g, 202°F water, 2:45 drawdown, finer grind (~650µm), higher agitation pours (8-10g/s), 4x63g every 30s, swirl on 1st and 3rd pours
Floral bomb! Would definitely consider this peak.
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