Los Guacharos Community Blend from Huila, Colombia (2023)
US$0.00
Producers: Jose Uribe Lasso (65%), Luz Dary Polo, Ana Nelly Luna, Ines Perafan, & Viviana Realpe
Where: Bruselas, Huila, Colombia
Varieties: Caturra & Bourbon
Processing: Yeast Inoculated Washed process (65%), remainder processed as washed
Tasting notes: strawberry yogurt, rose geranium, baklava
The Guacharos community in Brussels, Huila has been resolute in exploring controlled processing as a way to reveal the prism of flavours possible in coffee as long as we have known them. This community blend from the mitaca/fly crop is driven by Jose Uribe Lasso’s take (65% of this lot) on a yeast fermentation he’s perfected over the years, giving a rose geranium/baklava & strawberry yogurt profile. Your co-pilot for spring.
Producers
In the South of Colombia, just outside the town of Pitalito that acts as the anchor to various coffee growing communities in Huila is Bruselas, where a group called Los Guacharos is thriving. This crew of producers are working to rewrite the script, converting to organic agriculture, making their own soil amendments, taking care of waste water with stone and sand filtration systems.
A large portion of the Guacharos Community lot we have is from José Uribe Lasso and his family – a whopping 65% of it! Shared Source (the importer for this coffee) has been buying from José (specializing in Pink Bourbon and varieties like Sidra) since 2016 through the Guacharos group. His sons are responsible for the processing of several lots that have been celebrated in various competitions as of late, including the World Barista Championship. The :assos are using saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast to process much of their coffees, with exacting precision, contributing to the perfumy rose florals and tropical flavours in this lot.
Along with the Lasso’s yeast inoculated lot, there are four other producers who make up this beautiful example of what this producer group is all about. The other producer contributors are Luz Dary Polo with a Variedad Colombia lot, Ana Nelly Luna with a Caturra lot, Ines Perafan with a Variedad Colombia lot, and Viviana Realpe with a sprinkling of a Pink Bourbon lot (about 5% of the total lot).
Varieties
This Guacharos Community lot is made up of mostly Caturra & Bourbon with a bit of Variedad Colombia and a tiny bit of Pink Bourbon as well.
Processing
José Uribe Lasso contributed 65% of this community blend, for his portion he processed his coffee using yeast to inoculate the fermentation tank. After fermentation is complete, the coffee is washed and dried on raised beds.
For the remaining 35% of the lot, the coffees contributed were processed by first allowing the cherries to ferment in woven bags (tulas) that allow for leaking mucilage to drain, and then de-pulping the coffee and fermenting in sealed pickle barrels (canecas).
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 (around 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
Roasted with filter coffee in mind, expect shots that are lighter in body and brighter in acidity than your typical espresso profile.
Los Guacharos community blend makes shots that are perfumed like rosewater, sweet and clean with juicy fruit like cherry, strawberry, and mango. A great coffee for straight espresso and filter coffee, and potentially an interesting combination as espresso with milk.