Espresso – IHCafe90 by Olga Benitez in Marcala, Honduras
US$0.00
Producer: Olga Benitez
Origin: Marcala, Honduras
Varieties: IHCafe90
Processing: Washed
Tasting: creamy cacao, herbal, red berries
Exporter: Beneficio San Vicente
Harvest: Mar 2021
Roasted with espresso in mind, this lot from Olga comes through as espresso light and clean, it has a balanced acidity and is otherwise smooth, nutty, with herbal notes in the background. Roast profile is very similar to “Marshmallow Magic” from back in the day, so still quite light for espresso and therefore also makes lovely filter coffee.
Sweet & buttery with flavours like cacao and red berries, this washed processed IHCafe90 (hybrid cultivar) is grown by Olga Benitez in Marcala, Honduras. She participates in the Cabañas drying project, which focuses on longevity of green coffee and getting top, expertly grown coffees to the international market.
Sweet & buttery with flavours like cacao and red berries, this washed processed IHCafe90 (hybrid cultivar) is grown by Olga Benitez in Marcala, Honduras. She participates in the Cabañas drying project, which focuses on longevity of green coffee and getting top, expertly grown coffees to the international market.
Backstory
This washed lot from Olga’s farm, called, “Eye of the water,” is depulped and fermented overnight, before being dried on raised beds in a controlled manner as part of Proyecto Cabañas. This lot was harvested by Olga in March, and because of her attention to detail with this coffee, it will hold up well into the winter (if it lasts that long!)
Water
We brew all our coffees with municipal water that flows from our taps in Metro Vancouver. This municipal source is very soft, low ppm water (less than 30 TDS)
There are many alternative water recipes out there that will produce tasty cups if your water from the tap isn’t giving you good results. A good place to start is 1/2 strength Third Wave Water of around 60-70ppm (0.16g.-0.2g./L of TWW powder).
Brewing
We make an effort to taste our coffees in a variety of ways, but mostly use cupping, V60, and Kalita 155 brews as our main ways of quality control and dialling in roast profiles. Our filter recipes can be found in our Journal here:
Espresso
If you remember Marshmallow Magic, this is very much the same style as that was, still lightly roasted just with a bit more development to soften the acidity and herbal quality of the IHCafe90 and make pulling shots easier than with the filter profile. It also makes lovely filter coffee too.
If you give it a try please let us know what you think!
Starting parameters that we enjoy are:
18g. coffee : 45g. beverage in around 30sec.
93C water temp.
we’re less concerned with duration and more with yield, so if your shots are pulling faster but are tasting good then you’re doing great!