El Colibrí – Espresso from Peru

Unfortunately, this coffee is currently sold out, but we plan to have it back in stock with the next harvest.

A smooth, light-roasted espresso. Notes of raisins, grapes, and white chocolate. The texture is soft, the acidity is animating and well-integrated. A micro-lot from Norcafé, our partner in Peru.

El Colibrí - Coffee Info

Roasted for: Espresso, cappuccino, café crème

Brewing method: portafilter machine, as a lungo in a fully automatic machine, and in a Moka pot

Origin: Peru, Cajamarca, San Ignacio

Producer: Ylder Lenon Herrera Heredia

Varieties: Caturra, Costa Rica 95

Post-harvest process: depulped, fermented, washed

Tell me more about El Colibrí

Ylder is president of the still-young cooperative Norcafe Peru in Jaén. He founded the cooperative in 2015 with the idea of getting young people excited about coffee farming. He sought out partners and found 100 like-minded families. In the following years, more and more young people with good educations returned from the city to the countryside, where they see coffee production as a future prospect. It pays off for them because they can target new, certified, and specialty markets. Ylder continues to run his 1.5-hectare small farm and is fully committed to the specialty market. He experiments with different post-harvest processes and wants to turn his farm into a model farm for the cooperative members.

Why does the coffee taste the way it does?

That's what we wanted to ask him, too – “Precision, precision, precision.” It's that simple. And yet so difficult. Ylder and a small team he has worked with for a long time picked the cherries, depulped them immediately afterwards, and fermented them for 30 hours without water. Fermenting depulped cherries without water results in a slightly more intense fermentation than if the coffee were submerged in water. And you can taste it – the sweet, ripe citrus notes are likely supported by the fermentation. The juicy acidity is a result of the growing conditions. Ylder's farm is located at a very high altitude, it is cool, and the coffee grows slowly. Throughout it all, there is that underlying dark berry note that reminds us of juniper berries.

Why did we buy this coffee?

Because it is a pleasure to include several different coffees from the same partner (Cooperativa Norcafe) in our range. We have a cooperative lot from Norcafe, the filter coffee Cerro Azul, and now for the second time, the El Colibrí. This gives us and you an insight into a small region and how diverse and profound coffee can taste.

Brewing recipe

We find a brew ratio of 1:2.1 in 30-32 seconds very tasty here – even though the coffee has a distinct acidity, this brew ratio is enjoyable because the coffee is also very sweet. The tight brew ratio also makes the texture very velvety. The juniper/dark berry note follows the sweet-tart, white wine-like opening.

How do we roast this coffee?

Short and crisp. 11:20 min, development of 13.5% with a slightly higher final temperature than, for example, the Boa Vista. We reduce energy early during the roast (first adjustment at 2:30 minutes), then gradually decrease the temperature, we provide significantly less energy as soon as the first crack / development time begins, and keep some base gas until the end. The coffee roasts quickly on its own – El Colibrí is a small lot, the density is uniform, and the beans are well-sorted. It’s a dream to roast this coffee.