Colombia Embrujo Witch

• Tasting notes orange zest, luxardo cherry, chocolate ganache
• Roast level light
• Region caldas
• Varietal colombia
• Process anaerobic
• Elevation 1450-1900 m

Anaerobic coffees are fermented without oxygen, and that process drives the cup: big, jammy fruit and a boozy edge. This one starts bright with orange zest and gets deeper from there with notes of Luxardo cherry. On the table, the finish reminded us of chocolate ganache, intense and sweet like the filling between cake layers. Colombia's high-elevation coffees already run juicy, and the anaerobic process piles even more fruit on top.

Finca El Embrujo is a smaller farm inside the larger Finca La Palmera, in Caldas. Embrujo is Spanish for bewitchment, or a spell. Owner Ignacio Rodriguez believes excellent specialty coffee should feel like magic to the person drinking it. To get there, he's planting sought-after varietals and building a microbiology lab on site. The lab started out researching processing and fermentation. Now it's focused on soil and compost, all the way down to the microorganisms.

This is for anyone who likes fruit-forward coffees with some weight to them. If you haven't had an anaerobic before, this is a good one to start with. The fruit is loud up front, and the finish is where it settles into something sweet and dense. We'd brew it as a pour-over, which gives all of that room to show up. Embrujo isn't affiliated with Witch City, but a coffee with "witch" in the name in October was hard to pass up!