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Crown Jewel Peru El Diamante David Flores Chilcon Raised Bed Yellow Caturra

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Intro by Mayra Orellana-Powell with Chris Kornman

Having grabbed hold of the saying, “All for one and one for all,” David Flores Chilcon is a bit of a coffee musketeer. He is all about supporting his family and they are all about supporting him.

Much of his passion started just a few years ago when he went with his father to sell coffee and saw a coffee laboratory for the first time. He was hooked on the dream of producing a coffee that would stand out on the cupping table.

Fast Forward to this micro-lot, harvested and processed on David’s farm called El Morito located near the community of San Ignacio in the Cajamarca region, and you know his dedication is paying off. David has his own micro-mill where carefully harvested cherries are depulped, fermented, washed to remove the mucilage, and then gently dried on raised beds over a period of 12-18 days.

While David has designed farm management and post-harvest solutions to fit his needs, he also has a strong alliance to bring his coffee to the international market and earn fair prices. He started working with Aroma del Valle, an organization established to assist producers access the specialty coffee market. With the help of Aroma del Valle, David built the drying space he needed to produce his first micro-lot. David’s youth and energy has been an inspiration for other young producers who also want to sell coffee in the specialty coffee market.

We featured Chilcon’s coffee last year as a Crown Jewel and are thrilled to see it return again this year. On the cupping table we picked up notes of plum, raisin, and cranberry with a silky, buttery body and zesty citric acidity. It’s bright, clean, and easy to love.

 

Green Analysis by Nate Lumpkin

This coffee from Peru comes to us with high density, and somewhat below average moisture content and water activity. The coffee has been well-sorted into a tight screen size, with the majority of the coffee falling into sizes 17 and 18, and small amounts falling outside of that. Its high density may cause it to resist heat, especially early in the roast, so consider using a higher charge temperature or increased heat early on.

Caturra is a single-gene mutation of Bourbon, first reported in Brazil in 1937. Its short stature allows for denser planting and therefore higher yields and easier harvest. Yellow Caturra is simply a variation of Caturra with bright yellow cherries.

Ikawa Analysis by Nate Lumpkin

As of September 2020 we are running all Crown Jewel Analysis roasts on a brand new Ikawa Pro V3, using the most recent app and firmware version on “closed loop” setting.


I remember enjoying coffee from David Flores at the Crown around this time last year, but not specifically how it tasted, so I was curious to give this one a shot. I ran it through our new Ikawa V3 on our two standard roast profiles, and found the results a little surprising.

The first hot and fast roast turned out a little bit strange, with a somewhat oversour aroma, and notes in the cup of green apple, cinnamon, toasted wheat, apple, navel orange, and a bitter medicinal finish. I noticed that it cracked fairly early, and color change occurred a little late, so I imagine maybe this fast a roast simply does not give the coffee enough time to develop.

The second roast with a longer Maillard phase worked much better. This profile gives Maillard another thirty seconds, and the coffee moved to color change a little earlier as well. The results were a lot tastier: a sweet pear aroma, and in the cup notes of pear, cherry, melon, peach, chocolate mousse. It was really well balanced as well, with a bright and sweet start, and a smooth, dark finish. Based on these results, I would just recommend giving this coffee a little bit more time to develop its flavors.

You can download the profile to your Ikawa Pro app here:

Roast 1: Crown Standard SR 1.0

Roast 2: Crown Maillard +30 SR 1.0

Probatino Analysis by Candice Madison

Peru number two! This week we had the pleasure of enjoying two coffees from Peru; previously I roasted this coffee from César Sampertegui, and last week I had the pleasure of roasting the El Diamante from Finca El Morito, produced by David Flores Chilcon on his farm located in the region of Cajamarca.

I was looking forward to diving head first into this delicious fruit forward, super sweet offering. This year’s harvest comes with great green quality metrics; a higher than average density, and lower than average moisture levels tell me the coffee is filled to the brim with sugars and other compounds that suggest a sweet coffee with a complex flavor profile – I had high hopes from the last time we featured this coffee. All that was left was to roast it!

On the Probatino, I used the a low gas setting, as is my wont – I find it much easier to map out a roast using this method, as, for as many variables are there are in coffee roasting, one that is paramount is the ability and space to think through the roast, as it’s happening. This is not a specific recommendation, but a way that I have found over about 7 years, to mitigate any early racing or rapid heat transfer that may cause the coffee to roast faster and hotter than I wish it to.

Back to this roast, at about 30 seconds after the turning point, I turned the gas up to 3 on the dial until 370F. The coffee was taking on heat steadily and readily, that being the case, I felt it wiser to step back and let the coffee do its thing!

The coffee hit first crack a touch later than anticipated, temperature-wise, at 395F, at which point I dropped the gas back to the minimum (2 on the dial), and gave it around a minute of post-crack development before emptying the drum contents into the cooling tray.

What an absolute stunner in the cups. Complex sweetness that just kept going – confectioner’s sugar, honey, married with the flavor and sweetness of fruits such as guava, orange soda (ok, not *technically* a fruit) and cherries. Other notes cuppers found were rose water, cucumber and a juicy lemon and lime acidity. This bevy of flavors is supported not only by delicious base notes of bittersweet chocolate and roasted almond which served to highlight and temper the sweetness simultaneously. The body was smooth, round and just the right weight to support the complexity of the coffee without overwhelming each of the characteristics that make this coffee so good.

This would make a delicious pour over on a cool winter morning, but I would love to see this served as a single origin espresso. I’m going to sit here and imagine my old morning favourite, the one-and-one; an espresso with single cortado/piccolo on the side. Or, if this hits The Crown bar, I might just try the old hit and run; espresso in ceramic, drip to go. I can’t wait til we can let y’all back in our doors, we miss you! Until then, meet you back here next week!

Quest M3s Analysis by Evan Gilman

Unless otherwise noted, I follow a set standard of operations for all my Quest roasts. Generally, I’ll allow the machine to warm up for 15 minutes until my environmental temperature reading is at least 250F, weigh out 150g batch size, and begin roasting when I’ve reached my desired charge temperature. Read my initial post here and my updated post here.

It’s excellent to see familiar coffees come back after a few years, and even better when you get to roast and drink them. David Flores Chilcon has produced another phenomenal lot this year, and we’re here for it. There wasn’t a whole lot unexpected about this coffee, just a solid, dense, and sweet cup with really excellent sorting!

Having green analysis notes really helps to plan a roast. As Nate notes above, this coffee is quite dense, and a higher charge temperature will help you move it through the drying stage of roasting with a little more hop in its step. I did choose a slightly higher charge temperature here, but would have like to start at perhaps 395F in retrospect.

As I dropped the coffee in, I turned off both heat application and airflow, and allowed the coffee to soak up the heat. My 150g charge took on the heat quite well, but my turning point bottomed out even more than I would have expected at 213F. Generally, my turning point temperatures have been around 220F. As turning point hit, I turned the heat back up to 10A, but left airflow off for the time being.

As the rate of rise hit its peak, I reduced heat application to 7.5A, at 2:55 / 260F. I introduced airflow at 3 on the dial at 3:45 / 290F, and it was at this point that I realized the coffee probably could have used a bit more push due to its density, but I stayed the course. The coffee began chugging along nicely, and I increased airflow to maximum at 5:45 / 360F, and turned heat application down to 0A at 6:40 / 380F, just before first crack.

I allowed for a very generous 19.5% post-crack development on this batch, and wasn’t disappointed with the cup. Yes, this was a sugar forward coffee, even though I hadn’t spent as much time in Maillard as I would have liked. Post-crack development, as Nate notes above in the Ikawa roasts, tends to be the trick for this coffee. One that I discovered only by chance, though I should also give my nose some credit.

Cherry syrup and brown sugar came through clearly, and a clean apple pie finish topped everything off nicely. This is a high-chuggability quotient coffee, if you want to get technical. I found a bit of cinnamon on cooling, and I kept coming back for sips until I wished this was a bottomless cup. But this isn’t a diner coffee, folks – roast and quaff with confidence, but don’t forget to savor!

Brew Analysis by Elise Becker

I am familiar with the Peru El Diamante, as we featured last season’s crop on our pour-over bar at The Crown. It was every bit as delightful this season as last!

This week, I had a great conversation with my partner (who is not a coffee professional) about brewing satisfying pour-overs at home, and they expressed a strong preference for the brews made with lower temperature water resulting in a less acidic cup. As such, I’ve been thinking a lot about water temperature and how it affects extraction and flavor, and I put thought into action with my brew analysis for this week. I brewed two different cups of this Peru for a side by side comparison, with all other variables unchanged. On the brew bar at The Crown, we typically use water at 205F, but I wanted to see what results I would get from a cooler brew temperature as well.

The cooler (198F) brew water yielded a cup that was juicy and sweet. Kiwi, green apple candy, and heirloom tomato featured prominently. Fragrant vanilla, grilled peach, brown sugar sweetness and creamy milk chocolate were also present.

The hotter brew water (205F) resulted in a cup that was no less sweet, but had slightly more complexity. Green apple was still present, but the cup also had distinct stone fruit with apricot, peach, and nectarine all being called out. Ripe cantaloupe, orange, and cranberry juice, all popped out, and the cup kept a delicious brown sugar sweetness, buttery mouthfeel, and milk chocolate base.

Both brews were sweet and delicious, with the cooler brew water bringing out more creaminess and the hotter brew extracting the coffee more, more quickly, for more acidity and a more complex flavor experience. Definitely worth considering when putting the coffee into service.

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