February Coffee: Ecuador Francisco Vintimilla and Burundi Gaharo Hill

Ecuador Francisco Vintimilla (Putuchio) - Sey Ecuadors are what keep me motivated to continue investing my time in coffee. The flavors and complexity from terroir, advanced picking skills, and processing are like nowhere else in the world. However, they are usually a LOT more expensive than any other coffee so y'all better appreciate this stuff. Francisco Vintimilla is new to the specialty coffee world, with his oldest trees on the farm planted 5 years ago, and I look forward to seeing how the growing progresses in the years to come. The varietal is Mejorado which is Bourbon cross-bred with unknown Ethiopia Heirloom varietals. This is a classic washing process - floated, depulped, 24 hour fermentation and dried in a greenhouse. I know a lot of subscribers here love funky processing but trust me, with a coffee like this we want it to be washed to taste all the natural flavors produced from local conditions. I taste bright candied fruit up front, then pastry dough, persimmon, and caramelized sugar (might just be more pastry dough). This coffee is the epitome of tea-like, so make sure you wash that mouth out before you get to drinking. I brewed this coffee with a 16.3:1 ratio with a slightly coarser grind than usual. If you received the Lugmapata from Little Wolf last month, probably around that grind setting. I poured a 30 second bloom, and then poured three pulses in 30 second increments at 30 s, 60 s, and 90 s. The total brew time was 2:50. 

Burundi Gaharo Hill - Gaharo Hill is home to the original Long Miles project, a project I have been following for several years as it started from two people and has grown across numerous districts in Burundi. This lot specifically is made up of 7 different lots from local farmers, so the exact varietals are tricky to guess; however, most likely it's Red Bourbon and Mibirizi (variant of Bourbon local to Rwanda/Burundi). The exact percentages are not known so without varietal nerding out too hard, lets just fuckin drink it! In this cup I tasted caramel brownie, dried fig, chardonnay, and lime. Classic Burundi profile, but with that crispy Sey clarity. I brewed this coffee slightly finer than typical v60 grind with a 15.7:1 ratio. The coffee bloomed for 35 seconds, then I poured two pulses spaced 40 seconds apart, finishing my last pour at 100 s. The total brew time was 2:45.