Germán Carranza Anaerobic Bourbon

Producers: Germán Carranza
Origin: Gracias A Dios, Amazonas, Perú
Elevation: 1650 MASL
Variety: Bourbon
Process: Anaerobic Washed
Importer: Yellow Rooster Coffee Imports
Flavor Notes: Raspberry Sorbet, Blackberry, Vanilla, Cashew

Vamos a Perú! So excited to be cracking into our second coffee from our partner Germán Carranza and his farm El Bebedero this year. El Bebedero is located in Gracias a Dios, in the Amazonas region of nothern Perú. Big ups, to the homies of Yellow Rooster for sourcing these gems and kicking them our way.

I have a cool connection and history with the Carranza family dating back to 2015ish when I was sourcing some Peruvian coffees for a previous employer and this beaut of a coffee came before me from producer Ronal Carranza. Ronal's coffee was so impactful to me that it essentially etched a 'type' in my mind... A type of coffee and cup profile I knew I always wanted that was saturated in raspberry sweetness and milk chocolates. Fast forward a decade or so, and my bud Joel of Yellow Rooster was working with a producer from the same region named Germán Carranza. Sure enough, Germán is Ronal's nephew and this lot of the bourbon variety brings back all the feels and memories of the cup profile that has since defined (part of) a region for me. Ight, let's dig into it.

As told by Yellow Rooster: This coffee comes from Germán’s farm named El Bebedero, located in the scenic village Gracias a Dios, in the Peruvian department Amazonas.
Our relationship with German and his family started in 2019, which has allowed our business trips to origin to turn into visits with friends.

We’ve had the pleasure of visiting El Bebedero three times now, with Germán and his beautiful family as our hosts. We’ve walked among his healthy trees across the different plots in the farm, his new processing infrastructure and chatted plenty about his plans for future experimental fermentation and expansion. Having purchased as much as we could since 2019, we’ve seen growth not only in the cup scores and quality year after year, but also as a visionary leader among his family and community.

Peru is a coffee power house and we believe it does not yet get the recognition it totally deserves! It is often an origin associated with lower quality Fair Trade, or washed “blender” coffees. But Peru is an incredibly diverse landscape with micro climates all throughout where producers are doing amazing things and working to show that they have so much more to offer. Germán Carranza and his family are some of those producers who are pushing the boundaries and we are really excited to see what they will offer in the harvests to come.

Germán's coffees always display an impressive complexity for their 'type' and it's tough to really convey the depth of nuance in the cup.  This lot of his Bourbon variety underwent a washed anaerobic fermentation that took his more traditional washed bourbon cup profile that we've sourced the last two years (balanced mixed berries and chocolates) and modulated it into a more pointed and brighter profile.

In the cup this coffee jumps out with raspberry and subtly nutty aromatics.  As you sip, layered raspberry vibes and blackberry sweetness saturate the pallet alongside a crisp citric acidity.  As the cup cools a bit, the acidity pops while remaining in balance, as sorbet-like note lifts in the cup bringing in ripe flavors of raspberry and a subtly lactic quality.  This all the while being balanced out by a vanella and sweet nut a la cashew foundation. 

This coffee is a crowd pleaser with a 'pop' for sure.  It shines on all the brew methods and goes great with anything.  Snag a bag of Germán's bourbon and get hyped on Perú!