Wilton Benitez Chiroso

As many of you are aware, we tend to be pretty big fans of the coffees coming from the talented hands of Wilton Benitez. It is always super fun when he introduces a new variety to the line up and even more exciting when we find we love this one as well as his other coffees! It’s our first ever Chiroso variety from the esteemed Benitez and it does not disappoint. We called this coffee super interesting and we simply adore all the bright fruit notes-coupled with a thyme-like pop-in this unique coffee. We taste strawberry jam, thyme, blue raspberry slushie, citrus zest and rosemary. It’s another masterful coffee from the master himself. Enjoy!

The Chiroso Variety. There is little known about how the Chiroso variety made its way to where it was discovered growing wildly in Antioquia, Colombia. What is known, is that this rare variety offers up an elevated cup quality that mimics the florality of the Geisha variety and the sweetness/silky body of the Pink Bourbon variety. The name Chiroso means “big” or “bumpy” and is thought to be named because its elongated shape resembles achiras, a traditional and imperfectly shaped Colombian biscuit.

Farm Level Info. Wilton Benitez is at the forefront of innovation in coffee processing and is doing amazing things to create unique and masterful flavors. He is a chemical engineer turned high-end coffee grower and his science background, coupled with decades of experience in coffee growing/tasting, have led to some of the most distinctive coffees we’ve experienced. Processing of this Chiroso lot started with sterilizing selectively harvested ripe coffee cherries with ozonated water and ultraviolet light. The coffee is then immersed in water heated to 90 degrees Celsius to achieve better sterilization and open the fruit’s pores. Microorganisms are added during fermentation taking place in anaerobic bioreactors. The coffee seeds are then subjected to a thermal shock (first a high temperature to swell the cherries, allowing the unique flavors and aromas from the initial anaerobic yeast fermentation to penetrate the seeds, then a cold temperature to constrict the coffee cherries and lock in those unique flavors and aromas.) The coffee is then taken to ecological drying chambers (which reclaim water!) where the coffee is dried for 36 hours or until reaching the desired humidity of 11 percent.