Here's the winning coffee from the 'Filter Coffee of the Year' competition!
Every year at the Helsinki Coffee Festival, the 'Filter Coffee of the Year' competition takes place, and this year, over 20 roasteries from all around Finland participated. Our Monteblanco Mixed Process coffee went in and took the victory!
This coffee is a blend of two coffees, both coming from Rodrigo Sanchez's Monteblanco farm in Huila, Colombia. Both coffees are 'washed' processed, ensuring a clean and easily drinkable result. One of the coffees is of the Pink Bourbon variety, and the other has undergone 'tropical co-fermentation' with the Purple Caturra variety. Together, these two create a truly fruit-forward, sweet, and juicy coffee unlike anything in our range before. You'll find flavors like tropical fruit and panela (whole cane sugar).
In the tropical co-ferment process, the coffee is fermented in a solution containing pineapple, passion fruit, orange, mango, and panela. These impart their flavors into the solution, which, when fermented, also infuses into the coffee itself. This processing style is new and has only started to appear on the lists of industry players in recent years. It's not an easy processing method, and Rodrigo has put a lot of work into it. He's the developer, pioneer, and face of this method globally, aiming to bring new and interesting taste experiences to coffee drinkers, which he succeeds in doing. The process draws a lot of influence from beer culture.
For the competition, we wanted to roast a coffee that would stand out from the other specialty processed and intensely flavored coffees. While the Pink Bourbon coffee alone would have been amazing, by blending it with 50% co-fermented coffee, we created something interesting, new, and fun that still meets our quality standards for clean and easily drinkable coffee. This was an experiment that might not happen again, so we recommend getting a bag to try it out, as it might run out quickly!
Monteblanco farm is a family-owned farm operated by Rodrigo following in his grandfather's footsteps, at an altitude of about 1730 meters. The 14-hectare farm is located in the mountains near the Suaza River and the Cueva de los Guácharos natural park. This microclimate provides excellent weather conditions for the cultivation of specialty coffee varieties. In addition to Pink Bourbon, Rodrigo and his team also grow Gesha, Pacamara, Purple Caturra, and more. Rodrigo is also known for his innovation and desire to experiment and bring new styles of coffee production to the industry.
