Colombia - Franky Hoyos Advanced Washed Pacamara

It's no secret there has been some controversy about the undisclosed use of flavourings in ultra-high intervention coffee, and it's something we've been grappling with as a roastery. The recent "What's in my Coffee Report" from the SCA put things into sharp perspective for us, alongside upcoming advances in testing that should hopefully start to become available for roasters, green importers and exporters. We've never wanted to make any unfounded accusations, believing that we should always be on the side of the farmers. This whole topic is thorny, and we've written a post that sets out our position on this in detail.

However, with the SCA report, we went hunting for a producer who is open about "how the sausage is made" - disclosing the use of flavourings during post-harvest processing, which we're transparently disclosing. This entire release set is to act as a pathfinder and model exercise and a demonstration of how we want to handle these coffees moving forward, and to prove that disclosure can be handled well for other supply chain actors.

We're treating this much the same as an "adjunct beer" - much like there is blueberry donut stouts, or peach infused lagers, this is a category of artisanal product that the beer industry has embraced and has its place, and it's about time we had the same conversation in coffee.

Flavourings in the tank do not fix bad green or bad fermentation, and we think Franky Hoyos has demonstrated both bravery - in being forthright about the use of flavouring extracts in the fermentation - as well as a mastery of heavy processing and careful additions to produce tasty products.

This is a peak modern Colombian coffee in style, and we hope you can help us demonstrate that there is market demand for transparency.

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Filter and Espresso

Lightest Roaster Influence: We've found many of these modern Colombian styles to often come with very rapid drying. Not great for green coffee longevity, the heavy processing and faster drying also leave the coffee a little higher moisture than would be ideal - to compensate, we're using a lot more heat in the roast, but as per our usual approach to these coffees, also massively shortening the end development phase and using a lower end temperature to preserve peak aromatics and minimise funk.

Best Rested: 4+ Weeks

Filter: 62g/L, 92°C when fresh; 90°C when rested

Espresso: 18g/50g/18-22s

We're tasting: Intense fruity aromatics - we find passionfruit, grape and hoppy terpenes. In the cup it's wildly sweet with passionfruit, mango, strawberry jam and peach, kiwi-like acidity, and as it cools develops a distinct coconut biscuit sweetness, with a hint of tropical hops.

Traceability

The Story

Franky Stiven Hoyos is a third generation producer in Pitalito, Huila, who runs the 10HA Finca El Encanto (not be confused with Scenery stalwarts Daisy & Fredy Acevedo in Quindío who have a farm by the same name). Franky is one of the new wave of Colombian producers who have made their names pushing the boundaries of coffee - both in heavy, high technical intervention processing, multi-stage fermentation, and in the technical transparency that comes with some of the most popular forms of these coffees. We ban the use of the word terroir in our copy because it is an ill-fitting, colonial concept for Coffee, but if we take the concept it attempts to convey - "the taste of place" - this style of modern Colombia paradoxically maximally rejects it and yet satisfies it in one. This is coffee that tastes of the processing and variety more than any particular regional character, and yet because this style of coffee is so associated with Colombia, it very much does taste of where it comes from.

Franky's grandfather started with 45 HA of mixed crops, his father planted coffee on 10 HA of them, and Franky started his coffee career learning barista, roasting and sensory skills and applied them to his farm techniques, moving into experimental processing as the market continued to expand for this particular style. As well as meeting the demand for differentiated and intense cups, the farm has been continually renewed with plantings of "exotic" varieties - Gesha, Ají, Pacamara, Chiroso, Java, etc - as these varieties combined with intense fermentations can produce unique cups.

We selected this Pacamara as a classic example of a both-ways coffee. We've had many passionfruit and strawberry lead cups from many different origins - often from naturals/dry process, especially those with extended ferments - in this cup we get the big acids we associate with a good washed Pacamara, with much of the funky berry notes and syrupy body that we would expect from the heavy processing steps. The use of blackberry and passionfruit extracts builds upon that base level and integrates into the cup, and we find also a unique coconut note.