Test results
Lychee, a delicate floral and stone fruit.
This coffee was produced in Caldas, Colombia, and is part of Juan Felipe Restrepo's most recent projects through Coffeelipe, a modern processing center dedicated to the development of advanced fermentation protocols. The facility includes a laboratory, bioreactors, fermentation tanks, mechanical silos, and greenhouses with suspended beds on two levels, allowing for extremely precise control of each stage of the process. This is Coffeelipe's seventh year of research and experimentation, during which more than 1000 distinct cup profiles have already been developed. Faced with the constant climatic challenges of recent harvests, Juan Felipe began exploring a line of coffees with subtly and delicately flavored profiles, seeking to preserve the coffee's identity while expanding its sensory complexity. During this research process, a technology developed in partnership with a Colombian university was incorporated, using osmotically treated and micropulverized fruit as part of the fermentation process. The result is a coffee with an expressive and carefully constructed profile, maintaining balance, clarity, and sophistication in the cup.
Castillo is an Arabica coffee cultivar developed in Colombia by the Cenicafé research center. Created from a cross between Caturra—recognized for its sensory quality and short stature—and the Timor Hybrid, known for its natural resistance to disease, this variety was developed to offer higher productivity, rust resistance, and adaptation to denser plantations. When properly managed, Castillo also presents great sensory potential, highlighting medium body, citric acidity, and fruity aromas. In this batch, harvested in October 2025, the cherries are manually selected and undergo a flotation process to remove less dense fruits and eliminate impurities such as leaves and twigs. Then, the coffee is placed in tanks for a first stage of dry oxidation for 12 hours. After this period, the cherries are pulped and returned to the tanks, this time submerged in water, where they remain for another 12 hours in controlled oxidation. After fermentation, the coffee is washed and taken for drying. At this stage, due to the grain's greater absorption capacity, a small amount of freeze-dried lychee diluted in water is added, subtly integrated into the process. Drying takes place over 10 days in drying racks, with careful monitoring to ensure the stability and uniformity of the batch.
We use the Orea 01 with a Sibarist FAST filter, a combination that promotes faster and more even extraction, resulting in a cleaner cup with greater clarity and definition of flavors.
Basic recipe
Coffee: 16g
Water: 250g
Temperature: 94ºC
Pouring
0:00 → 50g (bloom)
0:45 → 150g
1:30 → 250g
Total time: 2:30 – 2:50
How to extract
Start with a 50g bloom, gently wetting all the coffee to ensure even saturation and release of gases.
At 45 seconds, continue pouring until you reach 150g and finish at 1:30 until you reach 250g. During the pours after the bloom, pour the water only in the center, slowly and in a controlled manner, promoting a more uniform extraction and greater clarity in the cup.
We use 18g of coffee to make a final beverage of 40g in approximately 27 seconds.
