Circasia Edwin Noreña Carbonic Galaxy Hops co-fermented Gesha

Why we Love this Coffee:

This is our second special release in the 70 gram tin size. This series is all about maximizing the wild quadrant and when this came across our table we knew this was our next release. 

This is a high intervention Gesha cultivar coffee, co-fermented anaerobically with Galaxy Hop infused mossto, from Quindío, Colombia, produced by Edwin Noreña.The flavor profile is highly botanical and ginger-like, with hop-forward fruitiness, lemongrass, honey, jasmine, sage, and key lime. Think IPA florals meet coffee florals.

Edwin is a wizard of co-fermentation and we at Superthing HQ have had a blast roasting and brewing this coffee and if you like your flavors absolutely phantasmagorical, this is the perfect coffee for you.

More About this Coffee

Co-fermentation in coffee is highly experimental and wildly controversial, and it’s worth investigating what exactly this coffee is, how it’s been processed, and who is responsible. 

Edwin Noreña is the farmer and inheritor of Finca Campo Hermoso, following three prior generations. Edwin’s contribution to the family legacy would be to convert the farm into a specialty coffee powerhouse, with a specific focus on fermentation technique and cultivar selection. Noreña is an agroindustrial engineer by trade with graduate-level studies in biotechnology and is well-connected and highly aspirational coffee producer who focuses on cultivating carefully curated varieties paired with precise processing methods, designed to express the most surprising, memorable, and delicious coffees possible within his resources. Finca Campo Hermoso concentrates on growing cultivars far apart from the nationally-distributed hybrids of Castillo or Colombia, or the traditional Caturra. Instead the farm has in production Pink and Yellow Bourbon, Sidra, Gesha, and Cenicafe 1, a relatively new resistant hybrid developed Colombia’s national coffee research institute of the same name. 

Noreña explained his methods and philosophy recently in an interview. His audacious-sounding coffee could be taken as evidence of the producer’s (figurative) intoxication with fermentation’s power. However, for Noreña, his application of these processes is intended to be in service of the coffee’s inherent flavors, emerging out of respect. “It was a development that we adapted from the world of wine to enhance the flavors of coffee, always trying to intensify each coffee process using the original coffee flavors.” 

This is evidenced by Noreña’s reliance on the coffee’s mossto as a primary additive. He’s literally just adding extra coffee juice and selected microbes from a previous fermentation batch of the same cultivar (a technique known in other beverage-making circles as “backslopping”). “Mossto is a catalyst that helps to accelerate, control and enhance chemical reactions during coffee fermentation,” he explains. 

Ok, so what exactly is happening with this Carbonic Galaxy Hop process? Let’s break it down: 

Noreña picked this coffee from Gesha trees, using a brix meter to selectively harvest, after which the cherries soak underwater for about an hour. Primary fermentation takes 72 hours and occurs in whole cherry, in a sealed tank. The coffee is then pulped and set for secondary fermentation for 96 hours, backslopped with the mossto from the first fermentation. This mossto is infused with Galaxy Hops and is recirculated every twenty-four hours for a total of four days in secondary maceration. This heavily fermented “honey” coffee is then taken to raised beds to dry for 22 days, followed by a controlled warehouse humidity stabilization for an additional 8 days. 

The result is a highly amplified flavor profile, with extreme floral notes, bombastic dark fruit tones, and an incredible sweetness. This is an adventurous coffee, geared towards the curious and open-minded. 

Variety: Geisha

Producer: Edwin Noreña | Finca Campo Hermoso

Process: Double Carbonic Galaxy Hop-Mossto Fermented, Honey process. Dried on raised beds

Harvest date: April 2024

Altitude: 1600 masl

Region: Circasia Municipality, Quindío Department, Colombia