de Specialitate Corretto, Columbia Risaralda Tobacco Vanilla, 100% Arabica, 89 puncte SCA

Colombia Risaralda Tobacco Vanilla Specialty Coffee | Detailed Information and Description

🇨🇴 Origin: South America, Colombia, Risaralda region
👨‍🌾 Producer: Julio Madrid — Finca Milan (microlot)
🌱 Variety: Gesha/Sidra
⛰️ Altitude: 1400 m
💧 Processing: Culturing
🔥 Roast profile: Light
☕ Tasting notes: Vanilla, Tobacco, Wood
🏆 SCA score: 89 points
⚙️ Recommended for: Filter (V60, Chemex) and espresso
⏳ Optimal degassing: 7–14 days from the roast date

Risaralda: The Heart of Colombian Coffee

In central Colombia, between Caldas to the north and Quindío to the south, Risaralda is part of the Eje Cafetero—the “Coffee Axis”—an area added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011 for its coffee-growing landscape. Together, the three departments of the Coffee Axis produce almost half of Colombia’s coffee. Risaralda is the smallest of them, but has some of the highest average growing elevations—and at Finca Milán, volcanic soil and slow ripening at 1400 meters produce a coffee with plenty of natural sweetness, the perfect foundation for a profile like this one.

The Varieties: Gesha and Sidra

Tobacco-Vanilla starts with two of the most prized varieties in the world. Gesha is renowned for its elegance and aromatic complexity, while Sidra is known for its generous sweetness and rich notes. You usually find them in floral, bright coffees—but here, their sweet, complex foundation is taken in a completely different direction through processing, toward warm notes of vanilla and tobacco. In short, the varieties provide high-quality raw material, while Culturing fermentation determines the final profile.

Culturing: Where the Vanilla and Tobacco Notes Come From

The warm notes of vanilla and tobacco don’t come from a bottle—they come from fermentation. Culturing is a controlled fermentation method that uses carefully selected yeast and bacterial cultures, developed from natural ingredients (fruits and aromatic plants), in a process controlled for temperature, pH, and oxygen. For this lot, the fermentation culture is specially designed to bring out notes of sweet tobacco and vanilla—with no artificial additives. The result is a coffee with great aromatic complexity that still preserves the clarity of its origin and the beans’ natural sweetness.

The Producer: Julio Madrid, Finca Milán

Tobacco-Vanilla is the kind of lot that comes from a farm where fermentation is treated like a laboratory process: selected cultures, control at every step, and coffee thoughtfully developed from fruit to cup. The fact that such a precise note—pipe tobacco with vanilla—is achieved through processing alone says a lot about how well they’ve mastered the method.

Tasting Profile: Vanilla, Fine Tobacco, Wood

Tobacco-Vanilla is a coffee to savor slowly. The aroma brings natural vanilla and fine pipe tobacco, layered with caramel and sweet spices. In the cup, it’s velvety and creamy, with vanilla cream, brown sugar, and milk chocolate, over a subtle base of dried tobacco leaves. The acidity is medium and well integrated, while the finish is long and sweet, with vanilla, licorice, and delicate spices.

It’s a coffee that’s perfect after a meal or alongside dessert. Its sweetness and creamy body make it easy to love, while its complexity keeps it interesting to the last sip.

How to Brew Tobacco-Vanilla Coffee at Home

As a sweet, creamy coffee, Tobacco-Vanilla works beautifully in both worlds: espresso makes it intense and velvety, while V60 brings out a cleaner cup, with vanilla and wood taking center stage. Below are recipes for both.

V60 Recipe

Dose: 15g coffee to 250ml water
Grind: medium-fine (a little finer than for a typical washed coffee)
Water temperature: 92–94°C
Total time: 2:45–3:15 minutes

First, rinse the filter with hot water directly in the dripper to get rid of any papery taste and warm the vessel. Pour out the water, add the coffee, and make a small well in the center. First pour just 40–50 g of water, enough to wet all the grounds, and let it bloom for half a minute. Then pour the rest in gentle circles from the center outward, in three or four pours. The whole process takes about 2:45–3:15 minutes.

With V60, the coffee opens up differently than it does as espresso: the vanilla and licorice come through more clearly, the body stays creamy, and the long finish of sweet spices makes for a lovely close. It’s a more “readable” version of the same coffee.

☕ Corretto tip: For a coffee with sweet, woody notes, don’t raise the temperature too high. At 92°C, you preserve the balance between vanilla and tobacco; above 94°C, the woody notes can become too dominant.

Espresso Recipe

Espresso Recipe

Dose: 18g (fine grind)
Yield: 38–42 g in the cup
Water temperature: 92–94 °C
Extraction time: 27–32 seconds

As espresso, Tobacco-Vanilla delivers everything it has: vanilla and wood come together in a dense, sweet cup, while fine tobacco lingers on the tongue at the end. Distribute the coffee evenly and tamp level so the water flows evenly.

☕ Corretto tip: This coffee seems made for milk. It works wonderfully in a cappuccino or flat white—the vanilla and milk chocolate pair perfectly with milk foam. If you drink it as a straight espresso, keep the shot on the shorter side so the sweetness doesn’t get lost.

Choose the Right Grind