Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia, the producer behind this coffee, has achieved veritable celebrity status as a coffee farmer. He's especially well known at Origin Coffee Roasting, with whom he works quite frequently, and here at Cape Coffee Beans for having produced some of the most memorable lots we've tasted in the last few years.

What really sets Rodrigo and his team apart from competing producers is their willingness and eagerness to experiment with unique coffee varieties and unusual processing methods, such as co-fermentation. This particular Monteblanco lot is a blend of caturra and bourbon varietals that have been processed via carbonic maceration.

Whole coffee cherries are placed in a sealed container, into which carbon dioxide is pumped to effectively "push out" any oxygen. This creates an anaerobic environment, causing the coffee fruit's flesh to ferment, which can have a fairly dramatic effect on the final flavour of your beans once they've been cleaned, dried, roasted and eventually brewed. Carbonic maceration coffees typically have fairly intense flavour profiles, and tasting notes often mention boozy, bold cooked fruit flavours.

Phaedon's tasting notes

There are few words, written on a coffee bag label, that can elicit quite as much excitement in me as the combination of 'Monteblanco,' 'Origin Artisan Reserve,' and 'Carbonic Maceration'. I'm an unashamed fanboy when it comes to Rodrigo Sanchez's lots, roasted by my friends at Origin HQ. I hope all involved will forgive me (if they ever read this) for also adding that I'll take one of these anaerobic lots over a cultured coffee, pretty much any day. It's funny to think that anaerobic is no longer the cutting edge, but that is where we are in 2024. I still believe it's an exciting frontier for further exploration.

Like many of its predecessors, this lot's flavours are decidedly purple; they also have a tendency to give me bouts of synaesthesia. I'd like to believe that anyone who tastes them will understand what I'm on about; regardless, I find this coffee perfectly purple on the palate. It reminds me of blueberries, blackcurrant, and violet sweets. There's also this incredible perfumed quality that just adds to the whole drinking experience.

If you want to treat yourself, this is definitely a coffee you should buy; don't hesitate. I found stunning results in every brew method from Chemex to moka pot.

Origin's notes

We have featured a number of Monteblanco lots from Rodrigo & Claudia at Monteblanco over the years, including one of our all-time favourite coffees – their Purple Caturra Natural with its flavours of berry trifle, and of which one of Cape Town’s top chefs said “Wow. Is that even coffee?”.

• Flavour: strawberry, cocoa, watermelon juice, floral, lingering, light citrus
• Body: Green tea
• Roast: Medium
• Acidity: Citrus
• Suggested brewing methods: Pourover, siphon, Aeropress, french press, espresso + milk drinks

Coffee details from Origin

This lot of Caturra Bourbon is harvested and produced at Finca Monteblanco – a farm located on the very top of a mountain, in the San Adolfo municipality above Pitalito. The family farm is managed by Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia and his wife Claudia Samboni, following the coffee-growing tradition that began with his grandfather.

In the 14 hectares of Monteblanco farm, Rodrigo and his team have achieved several exotic varieties’ ideal growth and productivity. This is possible thanks to the farm’s environmental characteristics allowing Rodrigo to cultivate top-quality Gesha, Pink Bourbon, Pacamara, Purple Caturra, and Red Caturra, among others.

Each harvest, Finca Monteblanco produces micro-lots that serve as competition coffees around the world. Coffees from Monteblanco are milled and prepared for export at the new, state-of-the-art Aromas del Sur dry mill in Pitalito.

This lot of Caturra Bourbon undergoes a carbonic maceration washed process. With Rodrigo’s carbonic maceration method, the selected cherries should be at a starting point of minimum 90% maturation and an average Brix degree of 20-24.

After the coffee reaches the processing area, it is rafted (floated) in order to eliminate by density those dry beans, brocades, leaves, and voids that may affect the homogeneity of fermentation in addition to improving the physical quality of the coffee (yield factor).

After selection, the coffee is deposited in plastic bins to ferment in cherry for a period of 70 hours, with CO2 injected. During this period, the coffee bean undergoes changes in the colour of its mucilage that is transferred to the parchment, creating intense pink and dark tones, enhancing the sweetness and the body of the final drink, as well as intensifying the fruity notes of the coffee – these changes in the first stage of fermentation are more enzymatic.

The coffee is then pulped and deposited again in bins with its same juice (mussto) which is now rich in sugars, the source of fruit juice and micro-organisms are incorporated, enhancing fermentation. The bins are hermetically covered and injected with CO2 to start fermentation for another 70 to 94 hours. Thanks to the presence of these micro-organisms, the sugar chains of the mucilage metabolize, developing better fragrance and acidity attributes.

There would be a total of 140 to 188 hours of fermentation between cherries and mucilage. The beans are then washed and dried for a period of 18 to 22 days.

• Farm: Monteblanco
• Altitude: 1,730 masl
• Owner: Rodrigo Sanchez and Claudia Samboni
• Varietals: Caturra, Bourbon
• Processing: Carbonic maceration, washed, sun-dried
• Town/City: La Tocora de San Adolfo
• Region: Huila
• Country: Colombia