Featured Coffee: Populus Coffee Colombia LPET - Barreto

This intriguing coffee comes to us from Berlin’s Populus coffee, by way of Colombia. Specifically, this coffee comes from La Palma & El Tucan, an innovative group of coffee producers in Colombia. Barreto was lactic fermented, which allows for the growth of lactic acid bacteria under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions. These conditions lead to the coffee’s unique flavor profile; Populus’ tasting notes are natural wine, wild strawberry, and agave. We chose to brew this coffee on the Kone, with a 1:15 ratio of coffee to water.

Our recipe:

36g coffee — medium grind
540g water — just off boil

30 second bloom (75g)
Finished pouring at 2:35
Finished draining at 3:45

Tasting notes:

This coffee has a very intriguing dry aroma — somewhat reminiscent of a natural process coffee, even though it’s fully washed (think very fruity and slightly funky). These flavors hold up in the brew; Populus lists wild strawberry in their tasting notes, and to us this was the dominant flavor. Why wild strawberries? At the peak of their ripeness a wild strawberry is super sweet, and can almost verge on having some fermented flavors (this also explains Populus’ natural wine note). Beyond the strawberry notes, we also tasted milk chocolate, plum, ripe raspberries, and sugar cane.

Our take:

A really fun coffee — perfect for the coffee enthusiast in your life (especially if that’s you)! Sweet, fruity, and bordering on funky — but never tasting too fermented or weird. One of our favorite coffees of the year.