Fruity coffee

In Spain we come from a dark roast and torrefacto culture, where coffee mostly tastes of roast. From that starting point, the first cup of a fruity coffee is disconcerting: many people say it "tastes odd" or "doesn't taste like coffee".

What they're noticing is acidity, and it isn't a fault: it's the signal of a bean grown at altitude, picked ripe and roasted without masking it. It's exactly what scores highly in a cupping.

It's worth giving it three or four cups before deciding. The palate retrains quickly.

• Altitude. In cooler conditions fruit ripens slowly, accumulates more sugars and develops more acidity. High-grown coffees are the most complex.
• Variety. Genetics set the ceiling. A Geisha has a floral potential other varieties don't reach.
• Process. Washed gives clean, citrus fruit; natural gives intense, sweet red fruit, because the bean dries inside the cherry.
• Light roast. Essential: a dark roast wipes out everything above.

We develop it in the tasting notes guide.

A filter method. V60, Chemex or drip give a clean cup where the light notes stand out. In espresso the same coffee concentrates and flattens them.

Hot water. Light roasts are dense and not very soluble: 94-96 °C. With lukewarm water it comes out weak and unpleasantly sour.

A decent grinder. No shortcut here. Fines from a blade grinder turn bitter and bury exactly what you came for.

The full recipe is in the V60 guide.

This is our light roast single origin, selected for its aromatic profile: bright acidity and fruity nuances from the Colombian highlands, with complexity and elegance in the cup.

It's the coffee we recommend to anyone wanting to understand what specialty coffee is talking about. In filter it shines; as espresso it gives a bright cup, unlike what most bars serve.

Available as whole bean and ground. If you have a grinder, order whole bean: with light roasts, grind uniformity matters more than anywhere else.