The Cultivated Varieties Project

As a consultant, I have frequently been asked how to approach roasting a cultivar or what flavors a coffee roaster should expect when buying an “__________” variety of coffee from “____________” country.

Despite years of experience in the coffee roasting industry as a production roaster, teacher, author, and consultant the best advice I could give was often anecdotal.

That was no longer good
enough for me.

The Cultivated Varieties Project is a focused series of Iteration.Coffee boxed sets that seek to work out an answer to these two questions that is more systematic than my anecdotal answers of the past.

  1. Are there predictable flavors that are expected from certain cultivated varieties?

  2. Do specific roasting approaches work better than others for particular varieties regardless of terroir?

Here’s how it works…

Step 1

I work directly with importers or coffee farms to secure 3+ cultivated varieties from the same farm with the same processing. This helps reduce flavor differences caused by processing and terroir.

Step 2

I roast all cultivated varieties from the same farm with the same processing method to the same roast profile. This should help eliminate differences in flavor because of the roasting approach to reveal the impact of the cultivated variety.

Step 3

I do product development on each of the cultivars the way I would typically do for an Iteration.Coffee boxed set. This means 6-7 different roasting approaches to try and determine the best possible approach for a coffee.

Step 4

I repeat the first three steps with multiple farms, from different growing regions. This enables me to look for commonalities between the same “cultivated variety” separated from its growing conditions.

Step 5

I take all of the information gathered during this project, couple it with research and experience to create a book that helps collect and reveal answers to the two questions discussed above.

Please note… until I have locked in purchases from these suppliers and approved samples these are just the plan and not actual… if the name is in bold, then it is locked in.

PNG: Sigri Estate

Cultivars:

  • Typica

  • Maragogipe

  • Unknown Cultivar - currently being tested

Arriving Early Sept

Boxes Ship in Late Nov.

Colombia 1

Cultivars:

  • Pink Bourbon

  • Java

  • Sudan Rume

  • Caturra

  • Castillo

  • Gesha

Arriving ?

Boxes Ship ?

Colombia 2

Cultivars:

  • Typica

  • Fragrancia

  • Sidra

  • Tabi

  • Gesha

Arriving ?

Boxes Ship ?

Guatemala

Cultivars:

  • Gesha

  • Yellow Bourbon

  • Caturra

  • Catimor

  • H1

Arriving ?

Boxes Ship ?

El Salvador

Cultivars:

  • Pacamara

  • SL-34

  • Caturra

  • Gesha

Arriving ?

Boxes Ship ?