From Our Importer:
Finca las Brisas with Luis Montoya leading the coffee operation, is a family business in Urrao - Antioquia, the land of Chiroso!
Luis and I (Juan Medina of The Coffee Five) became good friends and have been working hand in hand for one goal....Become the best cup of Chiroso and Gesha from Urrao.
We started working together around 4 years ago, with me starting doing consulting for the farm, somehow we built a strong and honest relationship around the whole planning of the farm in terms of nutrition, agronomic management, biological and regenerative practices, and of course, harvesting, processing and drying, and I do buy around 80% of the total production of the farm.
Coffee plantation is 2100 to 2300 MASL, located inside a protected natural reservation.
Water Recommendation:
For those of you who want to get every last drop of excellence out of this coffee, our preferred brewing water (at least for cupping) is full strength Third Wave Water (130ppm GH, 40ppm KH), though Rao/Perger water (90ppm GH, 42ppm KH) is not far behind.
Full-strength Third Wave Water gives the most ripe blood orange type of flavor, maximum juiciness.
Half-strength Third Wave Water (65ppm GH, 20ppm KH), which is nearly identical to Lance Hedrick’s Light & Bright water (60ppm GH, 25ppm KH), gives a much more acid-driven cup profile that skews a bit sour, without enough roundness to provide balance. Grapefruit is more of the dominant flavor.
Rao/Perger water gives an excellent flavor profile that is just a little less sweet than full strength Third Wave Water. If you prefer a little more nuance at the slight expense of sweetness then this water would be the one for you.
Philadelphia water (Baxter water supply) filtered with a three-stage carbon system with a little softening (somewhat similar to what a Brita pitcher would do) also gives an excellent cup profile, most similar to full strength Third Wave Water, but there is a slight generic brown coffee note that isn’t present with a custom built water.
If this is all very confusing—check out our blog post on water for coffee!
