This Colombian coffee from the London-based roastery Nostos Coffee is elegant, sweet, and very complex. In the cup, notes of plum, pear, ginger, and blueberry unfold, complemented by a subtle hint of rosemary in the aftertaste. The resulting profile is juicy and sweet, yet delicate and precise, with a beautifully clean body and a gently spicy finish. This is not a coffee that relies on flashy, wild fermentation. Instead, it offers a highly refined and focused profile, in which fruitiness, floral lightness, and herbal nuances come together in a cup that is distinctive yet still very smooth. It’s exactly the kind of exceptional coffee you’ll enjoy most when sipping mindfully, allowing all its subtler layers to shine through.
The coffee comes from Colombia, from the Las Margaritas farm in the Valle del Cauca region, where it is produced by Café Granja La Esperanza. Sudan Rume coffee trees grow here at an elevation of 1,571 to 1,852 meters above sea level. Its origin alone suggests that this is a lot with extraordinary potential. Café Granja La Esperanza is among the most prominent names in contemporary Colombian specialty coffee, and Sudan Rume is a variety prized for its aromatic complexity and distinctive character. Combined with the terroir of Valle del Cauca and meticulous work on the farm, the result is a cup that is very clean, elegant, and yet unmistakable. Nostos Coffee roasts its coffees in London and builds its selection around ethically sourced and carefully roasted coffees for drip, espresso, and rare seasonal lots.
The processing method is classified as hybrid washed, and the entire process is carried out with great precision. Ripe cherries are first hand-picked and sorted by quality and Brix values to ensure fermentation proceeds as evenly as possible. This is followed by fourteen hours of aerobic fermentation in open tanks, then eighteen hours of anaerobic fermentation in closed tanks, and, after hulling, another twenty-four hours of aerobic fermentation. After thorough washing, the coffee is dried in mechanical silos at 38 °C for three to five days. It is precisely this meticulously managed process that translates into a clean acidity, deeper sweetness, and a very well-defined fruity and herbal complexity in the flavor.