006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo

FREEZER SALE UPDATE (11/26):

From Christopher: Over the past year, we roasted two versions of this lot, using two profiles; this was a result of the fact that between the original xbloom release and its subsequent wide release, we replaced a halogen lamp on and recalibrated our Stronghold S9X. As a result, there was a difference between the two roasts. Like many, I preferred the original xbloom profile and so, for this freezer release, did my best to recapture that roast. The dry milling on this lot was exceptional; we removed just 0.02% of the batch through optical sorting. The final cup starts and finishes sweet and juicy with tamarind, slight herbality, caramel, white grapefruit and orange.

This washed Chiroso lot is the entirety of Jhon Didier Trujillo's first harvest—as well as his first export—and presents with a dense, sugared cup with bright tamarind-like acidity.

From Christopher: "When my friends at Unblended told me that they were working with a new producer in their network—one who had never exported to the U.S. before—I asked to taste the coffee and to learn more. Even in years when prices in the local market are strong, coffee as an export product offers the potential for stronger prices and greater resiliency to market volatility. I knew that the work Unblended was doing in opening specialty export channels could be transformative for a smallholder; the other side of that equation is that it requires a buyer. I cupped Jhon Didier's coffee blind on a table with 11 other offers from three exporters and fell in love with its sweetness, structured acidity and intensity of flavor. I was surprised to learn that this was not just his first export—but also his first year of production.

"In the best case, it takes a coffee tree three years to produce; typically, though, it can take anywhere from 4-5 years for a tree to reach full production. This means that for someone looking to begin growing coffee, it's an investment—one with an uncertain outcome. When he decided to begin growing coffee, he planted what he called Caturra Chiroso using seeds he got from Carmen Montoya, whose father got seedlings from Fabian Castrillon, who brought the trees to Urrao from Sonson. Genetic testing performed using a separation of two different varieties called "Chiroso" in a collaboration between Unblended and Sey revealed the coffee's true genetic origins as a likely Ethiopian landrace—origins that explain the coffee's high quality potential. Seeking a high price for his coffee, knowing that quality was important, and hearing that Chiroso from Urrao has become well-known among specialty buyers, Jhon planted exclusively Chiroso on his farm—5,000 trees under the shade of lulo and banana trees.

"In his first harvest, those trees produced just 116kg of exportable green coffee, all of which I purchased for Aviary. The first 24kg of the lot was released through xbloom and was previewed at SCA Expo in Chicago in April.

This coffee is vibrant, tropical, dense and sweet with notes of brown sugar, tamarind, apricot and grapefruit with a slight florality like marigold."

Read the blog to put this coffee into context.