It may seem like just another traditionally washed coffee, but this one has some extra character. Papayo is already known for being tropical, fruity, and silky. Yessica and Diego's Papayo is special because it gets moderate intervention with a 24hr oxidation stage in cherry before getting de-pulped and fermented in open containers for 60hrs. The result is a beautifully juicy, silky and sweet cup, with notes that remind us of blood orange, guava and lemon starbursts. This is a super impressive coffee and it will be just their second year in business.
We had some fun with this offering and are releasing two profiles. The goal was to see how well we could represent our ultralight and our nordic profile in a single curve with just differing development ideas. If you were curious how our two extra light profiles differ, here is your chance to compare them by their development on the same coffee. We found the ultralight is the juicier cup, with higher clarity. It's like biting into a tangerine; it's full of fresh fruit. The nordic light is much sweeter -- almost candy-like -- from the extra time in development but has minor roast character. As this coffee rests, there will be subtle florals like dandelion and chamomile.
This coffee launched on March 12th as part of Drop 6!
Yessica and Diego Parra are fourth generation coffee producer siblings. Yessica studied specialty coffee while at SENA and later taught specialty coffee courses there as an instructor. After introducing her brother to what she had been exposed to, they started Diwan Coffee as a passion project while working other careers in coffee. Their passion project eventually grew into a full-time business, allowing them to leave their jobs, acquire their own farm (El Mirador), and develop their own processing methods. They launched their brand in Fall of 2024. Diego is specializing in fermentation and varietal profiling, while Yessica has mastered quality control, logistics, and sourcing.
El Mirador sits at 1750 masl in the Pitalito highlands of Huila. Along with Papayo, they also grow Caturra, Pink Bourbon, Bourbon Aji, Sidra, and Geisha. They explore a wide variety of processing methods from traditionally washed, natural processing, and thermal shock.
Papayo is named after its resemblance to papaya fruit. It's really hard to talk about the origin of the cultivar since it is widely speculated. Huila has a range of new, mysterious, and exciting varietals popping up in recent years. The best guesses are that it's a mutation of Pink Bourbon. It's known for tasting tropical and fruity and having a body that is sweet and silky.
Solely ripe cherries are handpicked. Cherries get floated for another round of selection. Then, coffee in cherry is left in open tanks for 24 hours to oxidize. Coffee is de-pulped and then fermented in open tanks for another 60 hours. Dried on raised sun beds in three increasing stage sun exposure conditions. Drying period lasts 12 to 18 days depending on weather.
There were so many reasons we were excited to purchase from Yessica and Diego. In sourcing their coffee, it was less about this specific lot and more about which lot we wanted to buy from them. Their offerings are full of special varietals with extraordinary processing techniques. We are inspired by their story turning a passion project turning into their livelihood. We also value their focus on education and sharing knowledge with their allied farmers at Diwan. We need many more intelligent, thoughtful, and passionate women in coffee, like Yessica. We love Diego's excitement about fermentation and his early success is so promising.
Green cost: $18.08/kg ($5/kg airship)
Package and roasting costs: $2.91/bag; $10/kg
Profile and sample use: ~1.5kg
Approx. Margin: 34.66%
Resting: Wait 30 days for peak experience (degas the night before by opening bag for about an hour). We're impatient and think this has tasted high clarity as early as 21 days after roast too.
We've primarily enjoyed this offering as a pourover.
Temperature range: 198-201°F
Water: Tap/Demineralized and Third Wave Water Light Roast
Grind Settings: Medium Coarse (700-750µm)
Target Drawdown Time: 2:45-3:00
4 Pour Recipe:
1. Pour 1/4 water every 30 seconds with high agitiation. Swirl the dripper on the bloom.
NORDIC LIGHT (BLUE):
A very similar profile to the Huke Banko Gotiti landrace we just had. Things that are similar in this Nordic approach include 500g batch size (as opposed to 400g), 390 drop temp, a slower 3 gas step-up approach in the soak, and a rapid drop in RoR during development.
This coffee took to this profile a little differently than the landrace of course. One thing we're noticing is much more external browning on this profile. It's very apparent in the cup. This roast character is present and a bit reminiscent of cornbread flavor. I honestly kind of enjoyed how it integrated with the rest of the coffee, but if you're tasting it, your coffee either needs more rest or a day to degas (if you just opened the bag). In the future, we might mitigate this with less pressure change (i.e. not opening airflow all the way to 10 near first crack).
ULTRALIGHT (RED):
We took the same approach as the nordic but dropped earlier into development before RoR tanks as we were attempting to take this one even lighter again. What we really liked about this specific green is even without the development time, the acid is still very present in this cup.
As opposed to our previous ultralight offerings, our batch size is larger. This already slows down our roast a bit; we intentionally slow it down even more by soaking longer and stepping up into full gas more gradually. The extra time in the drying and maillard phases seems to be helping our coffees find more expression though. It means we can lower RoR into first crack and even spend less time in there. Expect to see more ULs coming down the line with this updated approach.
Sensory Feedback
(Cupping) 1 day off of roast
Sweet citrus, floral, cane sugar, tropical fruit and berries. Notes that came to mind were sweet berry: maybe strawberry or raspberry, lychee, lemon acid, subtle floral, is that... grape soda... all over the place. (This was a full day of QC more about tasting green/gritty-ness/roast in other cups than identifying notes).
(Cupping) 11 day off of roast
Tasting the nordic. Aroma of vanilla cream, berries. Tasting like guava or passionfruit (I mix these up sometimes because of POGs ... that'd be a funny tasting note for this one). Sweet and lively cup, tasting really balanced.
(Brewing: QC Pourover) 15 days off of roast
Tasting the nordic. Blood orange aroma and acid very present. Coffee is "fuzzy" from roast. Wondering about how expressive this coffee will be. It is very sweet, reminiscent of lemon starburst. Gardenia is totally gone in this profile but I'm really digging the sweetness mixed with the juicy-ness. Lost the florals completely on this one. Brew was still very gassy & murky, which tames the acid. Subtle citric qualities apparent. Starburst in the body. Minor notes of guava (more like an essence). Coffee is incredibly sweet and has a cornbread quality.
(Cupping) 20 days off of roast
Brought the nordic to the co-roasting space member cupping and it was a hit. People liked how juicy it was, has aroma of expressed tangerine, really nice candy-like sweetness to the body. I tried the "ultralight" version of this when I got home and the presentation is so much juicier and clean; I think I prefer this one. Has a lot less "cornbread" too.
(Brew and Soup Ultralight) 23 days off roast
This oddly has ripping acidity today, which was really surprising. Could be my palette. Still getting roast bitterness. This coffee is so pink as it cools; I love it.
(Soup & Brewing Nordic Light) 30 days off roast
These cups start citrus forward and go totally tropical as they cool. Some subtle florals on the back palette. The acidity has died down a bit, but still very tangerine, some green apple at hot, and nice stone fruit-like body. I think the ultralight is more tangerine citrus than blood orange. Soup is also much less sweet. Guava comes in the mid palette as it cools. Also, a wild strawberry (the little ones that grow in grass fields) and more stone fruit. Wow, dandelion as it cools too, so neat. There might be some chamomile in there. The in-cherry character is pretty distracting from the florals. I would've loved to try this same lot without the oxidation and a shorter ferment to compare.
(Soup & Brewing Nordic Light) 31 days off roast
The soup on the Nordic is soo good. The extra sweetness in this profile really balances the acid. It's very candy like and silky. Starts very blood orange, turns lemon-y as it cools. There's a tropical sharpness that reminds me of guava too and is very "pink". Lemon starburst candy is still my favorite way to describe the room temp sweetness on this coffee. There's a lot going on so I'll be excited to hear other peoples' notes once they get their hands on the bags.
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