Boom Chain #7
$29.00
If Corduroy is our attempt to combine coffees we think play well together as espresso, Boom Chain is our new(ish) pursuit of tasty, loud, mostly fruit-forward coffees and combinations of coffees for filter brewing.
But instead of a blend of coffees, this iteration of Boom Chain is a single origin Colombia from The Coffee Quest, an importer and developer based in Austin, with multiple offices and employees in Colombia itself. The coffee they purchase and import range from high end bulk lots through specialty nanolots, of which this coffee is an example.
We have purchased a handful of their small lots over the last couple of years, but this is unique in that the coffee was processed by TCQ itself, at their processing headquarters, called Los Patios, located in Gigante, Huila. Many of the smallholders that The Coffee Quest deals with do not yet have the infrastructure required to produce exceptional coffee, and so TCQ has started to purchase small amounts of high quality coffee cherry to finish and dry at their station. The goal is not simply to produce good coffee, but to gather information through experimentation that can be shared with farmers, and create processes that can be replicated at farm level.
With this particular microlot, the coffee was de-pulped and underwent fermentation with a watermelon concentrate, before undergoing a final (and brief) anaerobic fermentation, after which it was slowly dried on patios under canopy. It’s a bit convoluted, but the results in the cup speak for themselves. The grounds have a perfumed (and sometimes green peppery) quality to them, but once they hit the water the aromatics explode with fruity perfume and jolly rancher qualities. In the cup, you find more of the same–a pink and red symphony of watermelon-laden flavor compounds that almost suffocate the senses in their intensity. To be sure, this is a unique cup, and maybe is a bit too much as a daily drinker. But as an experiment that pushes the limits of what “coffee” can be, it’s unique and delicious. Extremely limited quantities.
—–
note on the series: in the days of long logging in Maine, loggers would use snowmelt and Maine’s extensive river system to float logs from the depths of the woods to civilizations and sawmills. At various stages of the river drive, as it was called, logs would need to be counted and sorted, as the property of numerous logging outfits mixed and mingled as the drive made its way south. This sorting was done at catch-alls called booms, which were themselves floating barriers comprised of logs, wood and chains extending across a water body. Boom Chain is our own seasonal “catch-all.”
- Location: Huila, Colombia
- Elevation: 1700-1800 MASL
- Varietal: castillo
- Process: washed watermelon co-ferment
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
If Corduroy is our attempt to combine coffees we think play well together as espresso, Boom Chain is our new(ish) pursuit of tasty, loud, mostly fruit-forward coffees and combinations of coffees for filter brewing.
But instead of a blend of coffees, this iteration of Boom Chain is a single origin Colombia from The Coffee Quest, an importer and developer based in Austin, with multiple offices and employees in Colombia itself. The coffee they purchase and import range from high end bulk lots through specialty nanolots, of which this coffee is an example.
We have purchased a handful of their small lots over the last couple of years, but this is unique in that the coffee was processed by TCQ itself, at their processing headquarters, called Los Patios, located in Gigante, Huila. Many of the smallholders that The Coffee Quest deals with do not yet have the infrastructure required to produce exceptional coffee, and so TCQ has started to purchase small amounts of high quality coffee cherry to finish and dry at their station. The goal is not simply to produce good coffee, but to gather information through experimentation that can be shared with farmers, and create processes that can be replicated at farm level.
With this particular microlot, the coffee was de-pulped and underwent fermentation with a watermelon concentrate, before undergoing a final (and brief) anaerobic fermentation, after which it was slowly dried on patios under canopy. It’s a bit convoluted, but the results in the cup speak for themselves. The grounds have a perfumed (and sometimes green peppery) quality to them, but once they hit the water the aromatics explode with fruity perfume and jolly rancher qualities. In the cup, you find more of the same–a pink and red symphony of watermelon-laden flavor compounds that almost suffocate the senses in their intensity. To be sure, this is a unique cup, and maybe is a bit too much as a daily drinker. But as an experiment that pushes the limits of what “coffee” can be, it’s unique and delicious. Extremely limited quantities.
—–
note on the series: in the days of long logging in Maine, loggers would use snowmelt and Maine’s extensive river system to float logs from the depths of the woods to civilizations and sawmills. At various stages of the river drive, as it was called, logs would need to be counted and sorted, as the property of numerous logging outfits mixed and mingled as the drive made its way south. This sorting was done at catch-alls called booms, which were themselves floating barriers comprised of logs, wood and chains extending across a water body. Boom Chain is our own seasonal “catch-all.”
- Location: Huila, Colombia
- Elevation: 1700-1800 MASL
- Varietal: castillo
- Process: washed watermelon co-ferment