Ecuador Pichincha Galo Morales Washed Mejorado

Description

What's in the cup? Light bodied, notes of Orange sherbet, nectarine, and marshmallow, with a hint of cinnamon here and there and heavy floral in the finish. A much more elegant and refined cup than the powerhouse we had the first time. With longer rest, notes of citrus, light peach, and more florals appear.Will it Spro? Turbos are bright and tasty, but I had to dial my grind size up a bit to keep extraction where I wanted it.Typica Mejorado varietal grown by Galo Fernando Morales Flores at Finca Cruz Loma (2022 COE winner) in San José de Minas, Pichincha Province. Washed process, 1450 masl.Roast Color: 129.4 (higher is lighter)Recommended Minimum Rest: 3 weeks, but it will open up more at 4-5 weeksSold in 300g bags.Brewmaster J's Notes and TipsS&W Galo Morales Mejorado Washed Ecuador I got pretty consistent cups of sweet citrusy florals, peach, and black tea base. This was pretty easy to go overboard and find astringency, so I generally backed off using a coarser grind size and water distributor to keep cups where I wanted them. Pushing too hard brought a grainy note while backing off too much yielded a lemony cup. Overall this is a nice Mejo that sits on the peachy side, generally behaving consistently. The recipe below uses a distributor while you can get away from this by using a coarser grind and softer pours.Grind 5.0 ZP6Temp 90CBrewer V60-01 + Gabi BRecipe 4 pour 15g/240g recipe 50/75/65/50 with a 30s bloom, 5g/s poursFrom the producer:Galo Fernando Morales Flores, along with his wife Maria Alexandra Rivera and his extended family, grow coffee on their 350-hectare plot in the community of San José de Minas, a small town in the northwestern part of Pichincha, a short trip north of Quito. They describe their farm, Finca Cruz Loma, as a marvelous paradise whose temperate, tropical climate allows for a huge variety of flora to thrive—the family grows guanábana (soursop), corn, beans, and a plethora of citrus—all in addition to coffee. Coffee, though always a source of income, has recently brought a lot of recognition for Galo, Maria Alexandra, and the whole family, as winners of Pichincha’s regional quality competition and as featured producers in Ecuador’s national barista competition, both in 2019. In 2020, Cruz Loma took third place in the national “Taza Dorada” quality competition. Across residents and tourists alike Ecuador has a strong domestic market for roasted coffee, so honors such as these have no small impact on a farm’s brand. Finca Cruz Loma has been in Galo’s family going back 80 years. His grandparents were the first owners, who passed the property to their children, and now he and his four brothers are in charge. Galo’s experience in coffee began 20 years ago working alongside his mother on the farm; he would go on to work professionally in the coffee sector, for exporters and as a project manager, before returning to full-time farming. In Galo’s words, “cultivating my coffee is an activity that allows me to apply and develop the skills and habits I’ve learned over the years; it’s also an essential resource for my family, since my wife, my daughters, and myself are all involved with the production and marketing of our coffee. Everybody in the family has a critical role in the coffee’s success.” The principal harvest months in northern Pichincha are June to September, but the family continues picking through December. Ecuador’s namesake position on the Earth’s equator means that medium-altitude coffee enjoys practically a perfect year-round growing season, often with flowering and ripe cherry sharing the same branch most months.