Crown Jewel Colombia Carbonic Honey Cascade Hop Co-Fermented Pink Bourbon Edwin Noreña

Taste

Taste Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

This past September, The Crown hosted a two day symposium called Development Stage. During the event, Edwin Noreña spoke at the event and attendees got to take a closer look at his process and how he views coffee production. It was an exciting time to take sneak peek into the master mind behind “El Alquemista”. When you meet him you’ll find he is down to earth has a soft demeanor and is largely unconcerned of the buzz around him being there.  

If you are aware of the Crown Jewel line, you’ll likely know exactly who Edwin is and if you are new to him, this coffee is the perfect introduction. Coining the term ‘IPA’, It means that Edwin is using galaxy hops to co-ferment the coffees. In this particular iteration, the lot uses Pink Bourbon which created a botanical, herbal and tropical like fruit flavors.  

On the nose you’ll get hops and delicious florals. The cup is pleasantly tart notes like pink grapefruit, ginger, tea, lime juice and basil. Densely packed like conservatory filled with florals and tropical fruits. We’ve sourced this coffee before and year after year is it remains in the pocket of flavors you expect from this coffee. Not only is Edwin highly experimental with his lots he has a high caliber for consistency year after year. If you are new to his coffee or coming back for more, this coffee will meet all your expectations and more.  

Source

Source Analysis by Charlie Habegger 

Edwin Noreña is one of Colombia’s true processing obsessives. Known among friends as “El Alquimista” (the alchemist), Edwin has dialed in a wide repertoire of fermentation profiles, often using multiple fermentations in sequence to achieve a desired expression. This Pink Bourbon microlot was processed using three distinct fermentations and the addition of cascade hops, which give the final coffee a candy-like structure and flavors of lychee, rose, pear, and anise. 

Quindío Department and Finca Campo Hermoso 

For such a naturally gifted department as Quindío, it tends to receive less recognition than others for its coffee. Quindío is Colombia’s second-smallest department by size, making up only about 0.2% of the national territory. It’s location, however, right on the central cordillera of Colombia’s vast Andes divide, and centrally between the country’s largest and most influential cities (Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali), give it a high volume of tourist traffic, coffee industry, airline commuters, and idyllic getaways in the form of brightly painted mountain towns, natural reserves, and high elevation tropical landscapes throughout. Almost the entire department is mountainous, its lowest elevations still over 1000 meters, and many parts are dense with coffee plantations, from the small to the large and ambitious. 

Finca Campo Hermoso is a 15-hectare farm outside of Circasia, only a few kilometers north of Quindío’s capital city Armenia. Its owner, Edwin Noreña, is an agro-industrial engineer by trade with graduate-level studies in biotechnology. Edwin is a well-connected and highly aspirational coffee producer who focuses on cultivating very specific varieties paired with very specific processing methods designed to express the most surprising, memorable, and delicious coffees possible within his resources. Finca Campo Hermoso concentrates on growing a wide variety of coffee cultivars, including Pink & Yellow Bourbon, Yellow Caturra, Bourbon Sidra, Gesha, and Cenicafé 1, a resistant hybrid developed by Cenicafé, Colombia’s national coffee research institute. The resulting coffees are often marketed under “El Alquimista”, Edwin’s personal brand for his microlots, which have featured in barista competitions and choosy roasters around the world (and Royal Coffee’s own inventory from time to time). 

Edwin is a third-generation coffee grower. Processing, particularly the fermentation step, always interested him because of its potential to transform raw coffee seeds into a remarkably unique sensory experience for coffee drinkers. A breakthrough moment for him was realizing that the sugary, residual liquid produced during whole cherry fermentation could be used again in subsequent fermentations to add natural sugars, and also serve as a solvent for flavoring agents. Over the years Edwin has used chiles, ginger, various fruits, and, in this case, brewers hops to develop unique flavors in his microlots. 

“IPA” Cascade Hop Processing and Pink Bourbon 

You know you’re writing about a complicated process when you need to start with an abstract. Here goes. Edwin’s processing for this particular lot involved two distinct whole coffee cherry fermentations: one of fresh picked coffee on its own; and a second one in which the fruit was accompanied by a carefully formulated solution of coffee cherry must (a biproduct of the first fermentation) and dry cascade hops. Finally, the twice-fermented cherry is depulped and moved immediately to raised screen beds to dry, just like a traditional honey would be. Each stage adds a particular bit of uniqueness to the final coffee, so that by the end the coffee is truly one of a kind in the world. 

The first fermentation was with fresh coffee cherry only, carefully hand-sorted for ripeness and consistency, washed clean, and immediately moved into 2,000kg tanks to ferment for 24 hours with limited oxygen. During a fermentation like this (which we would consider an “anaerobic maceration” of the cherry) the fruit becomes dramatically softer, sweeter, and more acetic, while also leaching out a concentrated sticky, sugary runoff, the mossto or “must”, not unlike the must from freshly smashed grapes and skins in winemaking.  

After this first fermentation was complete, the fermented cherry was separated from its must and moved into much smaller tanks, of 200kg capacity each. The must was then fermented on its own, along with brewer’s yeast to inoculate the process and ample quantities of cascade hops for flavoring. The fermented and flavored must was then mixed into the coffee cherry, at a ratio of 30mL per kilogram. The cherry and must were sealed into the smaller tanks to ferment again for 72 more hours. 

In the final step the fermented cherry was lightly depulped leaving most of the mucilage intact (similar to what a “black” honey would be in Costa Rica), and moved directly to Edwin’s greenhouse to dry on raised screen beds, where it dried for 10 days. 

The fully dried coffee is then conditioned for 8 days in a warehouse, allowing for humidity to stabilize inside the seeds, and then moved into GrainPro bags for long-term storage, where it is cupped numerous times over the next few weeks for quality analysis. 

Edwin used an increasingly popular cultivar here, known to most roasters as Pink Bourbon, sometimes referred to in Spanish speaking countries as Rosado. It is now acknowledged to be unrelated to the colonized strains of Bourbon classic, those trees first grown in isolation on the French-occupied island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Rosado, instead, is an Ethiopian landrace, transplanted from unknown origins, cropping up in Colombia first around a decade ago, known to its growers by its rosy-colored ripe fruits and to its roasters and cuppers by its pastel-like flavor profile, bright acidity, and gentle sweetness. 

Green

Green Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Density is a little bit below average with moisture content sitting a little bit above average. With a wider screen spread, be sure to look out for uneven roasting. We often find that with these co-fermented coffees it can be hard to mess up the roast because it’s pretty intense in flavor.  

Pink Bourbon is also abundantly available in the Colombia, compared to other locations. Like the name implies, the cultivar has pink cherries compared to the usual red that we see on coffee trees. Bourbon is a genetically important arabica cultivar due to its contribution to genetic diversity of the cultivated crop in the 19th century. It’s known for its high cup quality and slightly higher resistance to disease relative to Typica. 

Diedrich

Diedrich IR5 Analysis by Doris Garrido  

Roasting co-fermented coffee has been a very interesting task. I find these coffees delicate, as they’ve undergone more stress than others. My approach has been to roast them gently and intentionally. This method has worked well for most, though I always take other factors into consideration the more information I have the better. Sometimes, I aim to roast in a way that allows the co-fermentation to shine while still preserving the character of the cultivar. In this case we have received a Colombia Pink bourbon, co-fermented with IPA from Edwin Norena.  

It turns out that Pink Bourbon is genetically related to Ethiopian landrace varieties and not closely tied to Bourbon cultivars. I first heard this from Chris Korman who’s passionate about coffee genetics, but during the roast summit in Portland I got to hear Rob Hoss approach roasting based on the coffee Cultivars, and particularly his talk about Colombia pink bourbon. And of course I got curious, mainly because this pink bourbon is a very particular case. So, I decided to roast this coffee as I would an Ethiopian.  

The plan was to do short drying, as I typically do for Ethiopians, then slow down the roast to allow for caramelization and a soft finish to the Maillard phase. Being co-fermented, I expected the coffee to be quiet during the first crack.  

I started the batch with the drum preheated to 340F. I waited about a minute to observe how the coffee began absorbing the heat, then applied the 100% gas for three minutes before dropping to the lowest setting (30% for our machine) and starting the full airflow. And that was it! Building energy at the beginning of the roast is my favorite when roasting on the Diedrich -it works beautifully on Ethiopians. 

I noticed the color changes early on the roast, around 291F.  The first crack was marked at 388F. As expected, it was very quiet, so I confirmed it by checking the trier and observing the beans directly.  

On the cupping table: hoppy aroma, botanical, floral, lime tea, lime juice, bergamot and ginger -overall a very clean cup. The finish was delicate and refined. I’m very pleased with the very simple roast approach; the coffee turned out beautifully and will be featured as part of our pour over offerings here at The Crown.  

IKAWA

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Our current Ikawa practice compares two sample roast profiles, originally designed for different densities of green coffee. The two roasts differ slightly in total length, charge temperature, and time spent between color change in first crack. You can learn more about the profiles here. 

On the high density roast of this coffee the cup was highly botanical a little bit weed like and very acid forward. On the low density roast of this coffee there was more sweetness, fullness and body that complimented the menthol, ginger and basil. I recommend trying out the low density roast as it is a bit more complete but either roast you’ll experience all of the co-fermented flavors this coffee has to offer. 

You can roast your own by linking to our profiles in the Ikawa Pro app here: 

• Roast 1: Low Density Sample Roast 
• Roast 2: High Density Sample Roast   

Espresso

Espresso Analysis by Tim Tran

Hey babe, wake up – new Edwin Norena just dropped.  

The arrival of Edwin’s coffees is always an exciting time of the year with an abundance of new aromas and flavors floating around the Crown. And this IPA processed Pink Bourbon is definitely no exception. The IPA processed coffee has developed almost a cult following amongst some Crown customers and for very good reason! 

I started my espresso analysis with a standard doubleshot dose of 18 grams of coffee, with a moderate yield of 37 grams of espresso. The total brew time for this shot was 25 seconds. I had mentioned aroma earlier, and as soon as the grinder started chewing up coffee, the room was awash with the dry fragrance of peaches and hops. The brewed coffee aroma – even more intense. This shot carried flavors of lemon verbena, Valencia oranges, juniper, and some bright botanicals that really took you to the sensorial experience of having a zippy beer. Intense, fruity, and very delicious. 

My second favorite brew ultimately ended up being a fairly large 20 gram dose of coffee, with a low yield of 35 grams of espresso, brewed in 20 seconds. This espresso really highlighted the Valencia orange notes, pushed for some bright citrus on the nose, and carried a touch of rose and cherry syrup. At this slightly more concentrated espresso ratio, the coffee took on an almost effervescence that was a fun juxtaposition to experience with its syrupy body. 

Something to be noted about this coffee on espresso, the flavor profile remains staunchly true to character. As I shifted my brew parameters around, I was surprised by how inelastic the core identity of each of my espresso shots presented with respect to taste. This coffee remained a punchy, zesty, floral, and very sweet drinking experience all throughout. All this to say, this is an excellent coffee, and it will really shine no matter how you brew. 

Ultimately, my recommendation for this coffee is to target a moderate to higher dose of coffee, opting for a shorter yield and a slightly faster brew time. This coffee truly is an exceptional display of process identity and another excellent crop from Edwin that we are proud to share with you.