Final Restock June 8th 10am EST

Tasting Like: Chocolate Covered Banana Slices, Long Creamy Finish, Caramel, Orangettes, Milk Chocolate Ice Cream, Super Super Creamy Body

Farm: Finca Las Flores
Producers: Jhoan Vergara
Variety: Red Bourbon
Process: Lactic Acid Inoculation 
Origin: Huila, Colombia
Altitude: 1750masl

This coffee made us rethink everything.
Some context is in order, gear up for a brief story time. It starts in Q4 of 2025, we were soaring so high as a company, selling more boxes than we could count, then Q1 rounded the corner and I admittedly just didn't even import any new green crop into our roastery operation. Guess what happened? Yes. A coffee company just about ran out of coffee. Our one job haha. I embarrassingly ended up settling on a few coffees I, at the time, thought were on par with our direct work we had been selling loads of, from importers I didn't love. If you've worked in a roastery for more than a moment, you can likely guess what happened next. We ended up with a bunch of green that hardly resembled our samples. It was the worst situation in the worst circumstances - and here we were building momentum just for it to come to a screeching halt from one to two coffees, in hindsight, I wish I could do over. Making judgement calls is tricky, but making what you believe is a good judgement and it turns out to be a mistake hurts. And that's where we found ourselves in the beginning of Q1 of this year. The silver lining was we had, during all of this, connected with the handlers of the Vergara family's coffees directly who had sent us a small allocation of this coffee directly, and it was so refreshing to our QC cups. It was our moment of hope and a firm reminder that working prudently and directly with farmers and their personal exporting offices has far more merit than convenience. As a result, we restructured our entire sourcing protocol, QC disciplines, and pumped a chunk of personal cash back into the project to do so. We went from sourcing just 30% roughly of our entire offer list in Q1 directly to 70% of all our coffees from the farmers themselves, their corresponding exclusive exporting arms, and family operations in just a few short months - all to a 6x size scale. Hundreds of hours of communication, thousands of WhatsApp messages, and what feels like a million cupping bowl slurps later, we have coffees that are better than just worthy of enthusiasts once more - we have the coffee of tomorrow now. 

(For my fellow roasters, importers, brokers, and owners, you likely find solace and nostalgia from my story, likely recollecting the first time you got burned by an importer or dispatched a coffee you wished you could do over. Many of you reached out to me to encourage me the last few months, reminding me that it happens to everyone, and even more of you offered constructive advice - if you're one of these folks, thank you. We're better because of you.)

Focusing back on this coffee, this coffee is a natural processed Red Bourbon subjected to "LAB" fermentation - lactic acid bacteria, if you're into formalities. However, before you write this coffee off, unlike a lot of heavily processed coffees that scream, this one somehow manages to be soft, stay creamy, and super elegant. The cup opens with this ridiculously smooth texture and aroma, then starts unfolding into a chocolate-covered banana, chocolate ice cream (Breyers is the best plain grocery store chocolate, I don't care), cultured dairy vibes. It holds this soft creamy body that finishes forever and subtle orangette-like choco-citrus vibe. Jhoan Vergara is a legacy producer from Colombia, one we've been drinking from for years, and is one of the more famed experimental producers in Huila. Pair his sense of tasteful processing with the elevation and climate of his farm, and there's ideal conditions for dense, expressive coffees. The kind we both adore here. More than that, it's also our shining star of what's to come at Promethium Coffee. Enjoy and thank you for sticking with us. Onwards.

Recommended Music to accompany brewing: Hysteria by Gesaffelstein
Includes QR code to applicable Tasting Guide™