We are absolutely thrilled to present our favorite coffees from the 3rd annual Huila Mágico competition! This has become one of the highlights of the year for us: Huila is one of our favorite growing regions in the world, and these are the finest coffees the region has to offer. In the inaugural competition, we purchased the 1st, 2nd, and 7th place coffees. Last year, we purchased the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place coffees. This year, we purchased the 3rd and 4th place coffees. It’s important to note that when looking at competition coffees the highest-placing coffees are not always the coffees we like the best. In this particular competition, as is the case across the specialty market as a whole, there are starting to be more and more experimental fermentations (anaerobic, lactic, carbonic, etc.) that can introduce some really wild flavors to coffees. Often, in a very limited tasting, these coffees have a sort of a shock-and-awe factor that gets them noticed and placed very high (kind of the same thing as some of the crazy World AeroPress Championships winning recipes). However, with more considered tasting, some subtle, undesirable, funky, alcohol-like flavors can start to show. The 3rd and 4th place finishers this year are impeccably clean and sparkling examples of the Pink Bourbon variety. In Finca Sierra Morena, we taste pink lemonade, grapefruit, strawberry, cucumber water, honeydew, and grape. It is bright and sweet, with the characteristic slight savoriness of the Pink Bourbon variety. This coffee, in addition to being simply delicious, is particularly noteworthy due to its unique processing. The complete cherries ferment for 18 hours before being de-pulped. This is essentially a very short stage of natural processing. However, the really interesting thing is that after de-pulping, the coffee ferments for 48 hours in open tanks without any water whatsoever. In a traditional washed process coffee, this fermentation would be done in water. In an anaerobic process coffee, this fermentation would be done in sealed tanks. This is distinct because there is no water, and it is open to the air—aerobic fermentation is happening rather than anaerobic.