Finca La Secreta (Colombia)

• Producers: Pranoy Thipaiah, Ajoy Thipaiah
• Region: Chikmagalur
• Type: 100% Fine Robusta
• Roast Profile: Filter Roast
• Altitude: 1160 MASL
• Process: Snakehead Naturals
• Varieties: CxR Robusta
• Flavor Notes: Clove, Vanilla, Pastry

Looking through the windows of De Longpre apartment near LA’s Thai Town, Charles Bukowski lived most of his years in the sixties and the seventies alchemizing the rugged, coarse and ugly aspects of Los Angeles into his transformative and beautiful verses. A very talented poet who converted some of life’s strangest, darkest and disturbing moments into vividly moving imagery, he is to be appreciated for his tremendous ability to enable anyone to find delight even in life’s roughest experiences. Robusta coffee – Arabica’s sister in the shadows is considered inferior, rougher and undesirable. But Pranoy Thipaiah of Kerehaklu Estate is writing a refreshing new chapter in the grand tale of Fine Robusta coffee and we are proud exponents of it. We present to you this unique lot of Snakehead Naturals Robusta dedicated to Charles Bukowski.

If the great modern poets could be compared to coffees, all of them would be specialty Arabicas, but good old Charles would stand out as a Fine Robusta. Perceived as too rugged, too bold and sometimes too mad, all it took was a single reading of a few of his raw verses to experience the phenomenal depth of the man. We invite you to experience our Fine Robusta masterpiece – conceptualized and brought to fruition by the passion, creativity and hard work of Pranoy Thipaiah – that will change your opinion of Robustas henceforth and widen your horizons of coffee understanding. Our light to medium filter roast reveals gentle spice notes of clove that diplomatically make way for hints of vanilla and a sweet pastry finish. Expect a full-bodied cup, silky texture throughout and a pleasant bitterness that lingers for just the right amount of time. Bukowski was judged, misunderstood, rejected and even hated. He didn’t seem to care and went about his poetry and craziness in absolute style. It didn’t take much time for his rebutters to turn into exalters. Kerehaklu’s daring Robusta lot holds its very own form of magic. Here’s your chance to experience it.

Process: This lot is a carefully processed Robusta CxR varietal from the Doddagandhi Block of Kerehaklu Estate. The plants are intercropped with citrus below a canopy of fig trees. The Snakehead Natural Process was undertaken where the fruits were first harvested selectively on picking mats laid below the bushes and a ripe-only approach. These were then brought back, rinsed thoroughly with the floats removed. Following this, the Robusta fruit were fermented as whole-fruit but underwater and in barrels – with parameters regularly checked. These were then dried on raised beds with regular raking and sorting. The process involved anoxic fermentation for 17.5 hours and the drying period was for 10 days.