May Coffee: Little Wolf and Kaffa

Little Wolf Colombia Terra Nova – This sweet lil ray of sunshine comes from the larger co-op and farm “El Mirador” in Huila. Terra Nova is a smaller lot of coffee trees managed by El Mirador owner’s son, Andres Torres. While Jairo Torres owns El Mirador, as a family business his children do manage some chunks off of it. The entire farm sits fairly consistently at 1600-1700 MASL, and the Terra Nova plot takes up about 3 hectares. This is a fairly large plot for being a smaller plot in a massive coffee farm. My favorite part when reading up on Andres, is that each day when the pickers come back from the fields, he manually checks each sack of cherries for defects. Granted, there is so many cherries as part of a harvest so I am not sure how thorough this is, but I love the engagement. This is a typical washing process with a 12 hour wet fermentation, followed by 24 hour dry fermentation. The farm has a channel system that floats the cherries down, and can easily check for defects by which cherries float. In this delicate cup I tasted pear, apple cider, and lemongrass on the back end. I brewed this coffee with a 16.3:1 water to coffee ratio, and ground it 2 clicks coarser on my grinder than I usually would with a washed Colombia Caturra. I poured three pulses spaced out by 35 seconds, ending my last pour at 2:10. My drop time was 3:00.

Little Wolf Kenya Karindundu – This next selection is a terrific display of the terroir offered in Nyeri, Kenya. Karindundu is essentially a factory or washing station, where local farmers and smallholders bring the crop. Generally the lots are mixed together either at the station or by various smallholders before they deliver cherries. Therefore, the clarity in to the offerings is not going to by crystal clear but the flavors we get from the coffee show us the lack of transparency is worth it. It also reminds us to support roasters that are actually doing work to create transparency and higher quality picking and processing in Kenya. We do know that generally all trees in this region are planted at 1700-1800 MASL, and that if I am not sure what to pick for monthly coffees, I can go for any Kenya from a trusted roaster and it will be a stunner. No exception here. Classic Kenya profile here – cherry, raspberry, blood orange. I brewed this initially with a 16:1 ratio. However, if you are doing v60 or aeropress I would inch down to a 15.6 or 15.7, and if a flat bed brewer or immersion I would go to around 16.5:1. UPDATE: The 15.6:1 ratio was magic on V60. I ground this a few clicks coarser than typical grind setting as it is an AA size, meaning it is a dense bean. I poured two quick pulses, finishing my final pour at 1:40 for a final brew time of 2:35.

Kaffa Ethiopia Siko – Siko is a processing station located in the Uraga region of Guji. Like I tend to always say when we have Uraga, this coffee is grown at a HIGH elevation at ~2150 MASL. It’s worth noting that we excitingly know what varietals this lot is made of – Dega and Kurume. Typically, we just see the varietal of Ethiopians described as “Heirloom” meaning specific varietals are unknown. I think I should maybe start writing some of these down… I will never remember, but also maybe I have never had the same varietals more than once. Ethiopia is just incredible like that. An interesting piece I learned from reading about Siko, is that in the entire country there is usually wild coffee growing amongst the more intentional coffee trees. I wonder if all of the wild varietals that naturally occur in Ethiopia have truly been tracked and if there is more research to be done. Next career path? Anyway, I kind of forgot that I made this coffee to really dive in to and was doing some mundane bs for my day job and I shouted on the first sip. The cat was pissed. It completely caught me by surprise. This is not really what I would call a classic washed Ethiopia, but tastes more like a lot of the honey processed Ethiopian’s I have tried. Notes of brown sugar and papaya hit me right away, followed by lemon zest and mango. I brewed this with a 16:1 ratio and ground it 5 clicks coarser than a typical starting point. I poured two pulses, one at 30 seconds, and the second at 75 seconds, finishing my second pour at 1:45. My drop time was 2:40.

Kaffa Colombia La Marleny – This is the one that led me to pursue Kaffa this month. These small lots in Kaffa’s “limited” category are always the most flavorful coffees and even if on paper seem simple, the flavors from terroir and processing are on point and I could drink them for life. La Marleny is the name of the farm operated by Wilson Aranda, a 4th generation coffee farmer located in Acevedo, Colombia. Acevedo is continuously one of my favorite regions and some of the other roasters we use have taught me to think this way. Apparently, since it is located in a valley between mountains, the cooler climate allows for more experimental yet traditional fermentation to take place. Basically, a typical washing process can be extended out to 40 hours during initial fermentation and drying longer without over fermenting. Make sense? No?? Anyway, this varietal is my fave. Y’all know by now… Pink Bourbon. This one had a little bit less acidity than I had hoped, but I tasted some new flavors that are super uncommon and original. I tasted like marshmallow flavor with with some sort of green tea/matcha flavor and then some sort of lemongrass or maybe coconut. I’m just giving flavors I am familiar with but truthfully I am not sure what I tasted. Please tell me what I am tasting cause I don’t know. I brewed this with a 16.8:1 ratio and ground it a couple clicks coarser than typical washed Colombia. I poured four pulses spaced out by 35 seconds, and kept my circles wide to slow down the extraction (this widens the dip in the bed and increases volume of solids the water must pass through and yes this does work don’t come at me). My final brew time was 2:55 but I look forward to brewing this more in the future to see how it changes in the coming weeks.