Rounding out Cedar’s latest batch of Colombian coffees is their final lot from Finca El Diviso for the year. This one’s a real doozy, as we’re sure anyone who attended Cedar’s recent takeover of our brew bar would agree. Like its sister lot, this release is of an uncommon but up-and-coming specialty variety, called Sidra, which has also been processed using an innovative technique, a unique spin on anaerobic natural fermentation.

You can get the full details from Cedar’s notes below, but the short version is that this lot has been through several rounds of anaerobic fermentation, each involving rigorous temperature control and buffered by periods of oxidation. The final stage involves submerging this coffee’s cherry in the “mossto” of a previous harvest. Mossto is the sweet, sugary juice of the coffee cherry, and the fermentation process allows its flavours to seep into another coffee, resulting in an intensely fruity flavour profile. 

The Lasso brothers and their team at El Diviso have garnered a reputation for their expertise with such cutting-edge processing methods and, having now tasted their results several times, we’re inclined to call their reputation well-earned. Similarly famous in the world of specialty coffee is the region where El Diviso is located, Huila. 

Thanks to its proximity to the Andean mountain range, Huila boasts high altitudes, temperate climate and nutrient-rich soil, making it an ideal area for farming specialty-grade Arabica coffee. It’s one of Colombia’s most famous coffee-producing regions, accounting for 18% of the country’s total coffee harvest, and has produced numerous Cup of Excellence-winning coffees in the past.

Phaedon's tasting notes

My first taste at this coffee was on the day of its launch, which we were lucky to host at CCBHQ. On that day, fuelled with excitement as much as coffee, all I could taste was raspberries. Having spent a bit of quiet time at home with this beauty, I would now say there's more going on in the cup. It has a surprising amount of body and sweetness, despite its dazzling acidity. It's downright juicy. I also picked up some tropical fruit notes, in my AeroPress particularly, which reminded me of pineapple. What I love most about this spectacular coffee is its lingering candy finish, which came through most clearly for me in both a French press and a V60 pour-over.

Cedar’s notes

• Cup profile: Sparkling raspberry, strawberry, cocoa yoghurt

Coffee details from Cedar

“We are back with another special release! Queue in our third and final lot of the year from the Lasso Brothers. We’re finishing off this amazing journey with quite a rare variety often found on the world competition stage: Sidra.”

“Sidra is quite an unknown cultivar grown in Colombia and Ecuador. Sources claim that it originated from Ecuador. This is the next big variety for competition lots, the next "Gesha" that has been romanticised through the years. It's a fresh and exciting variety bursting with exotic fruit notes, a hybrid between Bourbon and Typica varieties.”

“A sparkling mouthfeel on filter with notes of raspberry. Think red Spar-Letta.The espresso has this concentrated mixed berry notes of strawberry and that lingering raspberry we got on filter. On milk we picked up notes of strawberry frozen yoghurt and cocoa, [quite distinct] notes somehow coming together in an unusual way.”

• Farm: El Diviso
• Producer: Nestor Lasso
• Region: Huila
• Country: Colombia
• Process:  Anaerobic natural
• Altitude: 1780 masl
• Variety: Sidra

“Let's dive into how this particular lot gets processed:

• Only ripe berries are chosen which then undergo an 18 hour oxidation at an average room temperature of 25°C
• The cherries are then subjected to an anaerobic fermentation for 30 hours at an average temperature of 16 to 18°C.
• They are then transferred to tanks and oxidised for 28 hours, reaching a maximum temperature of 42°C.
• They are then transferred into a new container to start another anaerobic fermentation for 30 hours at a temperature of 16 to 20°C.
• The cherries in the tanks are then submerged in water at 45 degrees C. Leachate/mossto from a previous harvest is added and recirculated over 18 hours.
• The cherry is then placed on canopies to begin the drying process.
• Once the cherry reaches a humidity level of 18% it is transferred to black bags in a dark warehouse space, and left to dry for 60 hours until reaching a moisture level of 11%.”

“All of this contributes to the final cup on the table. This coffee stands out loud and proud. A coffee to punch you in the face with full flavour, a complete change to its elegant sister (our previous Special Release Aji).”