Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Featured Espresso: El Roble Espresso (Terrior)


Spotted: Mercury Espresso Bar
Address: 943 Queen Street East
Neighbourhood: Leslieville

Beans: El Roble Espresso
Region: Finca El Roble, Santander, Colombia
Roaster: Terrior Coffee
Located: Mass.

Roast: Northern Italian Espresso Roast

Verdict: lemony-pop, with fizzy cocoa smoked with nutty hints.

From the website:
Tasting Notes:
Honey, Almond-butter, Bittersweet chocolate, Lively acidity
North Italian Espresso Roast


Our latest Colombian entry is from the north of Colombia, unlike all our past offerings. Finca El Roble is in the department of Santander, near the border with Venezuela; it is one of the first places in Colombia that coffee was grown. Coffees from this area have traditionally been called Bucaramanga, after the city which dominates the region. Bucara is a bird, and manga means wide open space.

El Roble is a 740 acre organic farm owned by Oswaldo Acevedo. It is fairly flat, belying the fact that it is on a small plateau, Mesa do los Santos, perched over 5,000 feet above sea level with one of Colombia's most spectacular canyons, Chicamocha, just a mile or so to the east and steep descents of several thousand feet on the other sides. This creates a unique climate for El Roble.

El Roble has low to moderate rainfall that is distributed in such a way as to produce a single harvest per year, December-January, unlike most Colombian farms which have two harvests per year, due to greater and more evenly distributed rains.

El Roble is also a huge organic chicken farm which produces over five pounds of chicken manure per coffee tree each year. It has over 120 full time employees with a dedicated human resources department.

Last year Mr. Acevedo began a campaign to dramatically upgrade the quality of his coffee, making procedural and structural improvements wherever necessary. This lot is part of that effort and the quality is indeed there!

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