Fig Mood starts to introduce more fruit into the espresso. Its hallmark is its fig-like sweetness, but the coffee brings in juicy cherry liveliness and it's rounded out with candied pecan - bringing balance, sweetness and stone fruits. It's designed for those that want to delve further into the fruity espresso territory but still enjoying grounding notes of chocolate, candied pecans and cola.
The coffee in Fig Mood espresso right now is a field blend of Juan Jimenez Nemesio Ramos and Marino Ruiz, all from the south of Huila in Colombia.
This blend is from three all star producers in the south of Huila, and all three lots have undergone a two stage fermentation. The first is in cherry form and the second is in mucilage. The three producers are longtime legends: Juan Jimenez Nemesio Ramos, and Marino Ruiz. The coffee from Juan and Nemesio is caturra, while Marino’s is pink bourbon.
We have been working with Juan since 2020 and we regularly buy his Pink Bourbon, Red Bourbon, Colombia and Caturra. He’s a gem and an exemplar of what a quality focused producer can accomplish in Colombia.
Juan Jimenez is a second-generation coffee farmer who has been running his own show since 1980. His farm, Finca Buena Vista, is in one of my favourite regions of Colombia. The region is called Palestina and it’s in the southern end of the department (Colombia has departments, not provinces) of Huila. In fact, he is neighbours with our long-time friend and producer, Jose Martinez. He grows Caturra, Pink Bourbon, Red Bourbon and Typica.
Marino Ruiz rocked my world the first time I tasted his coffee. I taste a lot of coffee, so coming across his coffee made me pause and take it all in. I love Colombian coffees, I really do. When it all aligns, a great Colombian might just be my favourite coffee to drink. It can have the acidity of a Kenyan, the floral of an Ethiopian and the sweetness and roundness of the best Guatemalans. This coffee is a good example of that, it has it all!
Marino’s farm is located in one of my favourite regions of Colombia: San Agustín. San Agustín is in the south end in the province of Huila and it’s a very dramatic region, with lots of cliffs, waterfalls, and deep valleys. More importantly, the coffee from San Agustín has a distinct fruity character that I have always gravitated towards. This specific lot from Marino is 100% Pink Bourbon variety and it certainly delivers on the fruit.
Nemesio is a third-generation producer from beautiful Tarqui – cool fact: they make (not very good) wine in Tarqui. He inherited a portion of his farm – called La Galaxia, great name right? – from his father and has taken over the production of the farm since his late teens. His wife Fredy and him have raised all seven of their kids on the farm.
His processing is meticulous. The picking is done many times per harvest, and they stick to purely ripe picking. He immediately floats the cherry in water to remove “floaters”. Floaters are low density cherries that result in very poor-quality coffee – trust me, you don’t want floaters in your morning (or afternoon) coffee.
The sun-drying process is slow, aided by the location of his farm (1900m elevation) and the shade installed to cover the drying structure and keep the temperature inside the drying structure agreeable with coffee (20-35C). All in all, the drying process takes 20-30 days. The result is super tasty coffee!
