Description
Roaster’s tasting notes:
Roaster’s notes: The processing method used here makes the ‘green’ beans as varied in colour as Skittles! This translates to the roasted bean so do not panic when a myriad of colours assaults your eyes.
The flavour profile is quite extraordinary. Sweet tropical fruits plus some dark skinned berries (more Skittles) are the initial flavours. Some hints of chocolate backs those up and lingers just for fun. The fermentation process shines as it cools, reminding me of an IPA. Adults only.
Additional information:
In the coastal region of Mexico known as Veracruz, sits the infamous coffee-producing area, IxhuatlándelCafé.
With its climbing elevations, historic artifacts, and rich volcanic and clay soils–Ixhuatlán is home to a collectionof coffee producers and the Santuario Project, where this lot comes from.
Initiated in 2017, the Santuario Project is truly a place of magnificence and superior coffee quality. The Ixhuatlán processing centre was opened in 2019. With a dedicated team, carefully orchestrated processes, and advanced greenhouses, labs, and state-of-the-art wet and dry mills–the project has thrived in Mexico, producing top lots like this one. The coffee is harvested carefully, thanks to constant Brix measurements of the total sugar in each cherry.
Once harvested, the cherries are delivered to the wet mill to be submerged in water, removing floaters, or low quality cherries. They are then soaked in water to rehydrate the cherry skin for three hours. The water is drained in order to initiate the anaerobic fermentation, which lasts for 28 hours. Once complete, the coffee is evenly dispersed on raised beds to dry in the open sun for24 days. To stabilize the humidity of the coffee, it is dried under shade for an additional 7 days, then stored in Grain Probags for 12 days to stabilize. The coffee is then hulled and prepared for export at the Dos Ríos dry mill.
Ixhuatlán del Café is the processing area for the Santuario Project and where this coffee undergoes its unique process. Also, Ixhuatlán del Café is home to the greenhouses and experimentation areas that allow for trials of these high-quality processing methods. The Santuario staff are dedicated to quality assurance, regularly monitoring the harvest and each step of processing to ensure excellent quality is maintained. Working with these producers reveals how special the coffee is in this region of Mexico, and why members of the Santuario Project seek to preserve this historic coffee producing community
