*RESTOCKED SPECIAL RELEASE* - Colombia - Luis Calderon - Ombligon

ORANGE, BLACKBERRY & PRUNE (trust me, prune is good)

This is a fancy one. Have you come across Ombligon beans before? I hadn’t before I got this. They’re distantly related to Ethiopian Heirloom variety, and are very rare, but also really quite unique in terms of cup profile (move over Geisha!). More on the beans below.

This lot comes from Luis Anibal Calderon, it’s first time I’ve had one of his lots in (won’t be the last), he’s famed for producing standout exotic lots and this one doesn’t disappoint. The smell of the beans or whilst brewing is something else, rich jam, cinnamon and prune, like a dessert, it’s lovely. In the cup we have more of the same, but this time with some sweet orange up front, and then dark fruited jam and prune. This might not sound like the typical sweet shop style notes I get in, but this stuff really is brilliant, and is just as out there from a flavour perspective. It’s roasted light/medium and loves an immersion brew, but can get some fantastic shots on espresso as well.

Also it’s worth mentioning this was SCA cupped at import at 89.5 (if your Excel rounds up, it’d be a 90!) - It’s a very highly scoring cup. It’s only Feb as I write this, but I’m saying this might be my cup of the year, it’ll take some beating. Cheers.

THE COFFEE ITSELF

This coffee was grown by Luis Anibal Calderon at the farm Villa Betulia. This coffee was carefully hand-picked in order to select only the ripest cherries and then hand sorted to remove any defects. The coffee was sundried on raised beds in temperature controlled conditions until the ideal moisture content is achieved.

The seeds are from the Ethiopian Heirloom variety. Luis was the lucky one who was able to cultivate and understand the behavior of this plant. The results after many years of monitoring and experimenting are interesting. The cherry is elongated and has a belly button shape on the base of the fruit. The “belly button” term can be translated as Ombligon in Spanish, which is why Luis Anibal also refers to this variety as Ombligon.