August Mystery Reveal - Ilse

It's time to reveal the mystery coffee for August! Thank you for your patience as we got this one out. My favorite haiku of the flurry of haikus:

The mystery of
The mystery announcement
Is a mystery
- ThePuffin

About the coffee and the producer:

Pastor Ordonez’s farm, El Placer, spans 4 hectares at an elevation of 1800 MASL. This is a separation of SL-28 harvested in January 2025. Sl-28, originally a Kenyan variety, is known for its ripe acidity and fruit avors. This lot has those qualities while also having a more tropical fruit pro le with polished avors. We are tasting a very clean cup with great balance. We nd notes lemon, plum, apricot and tropical fruits along with refreshing notes of mint and ginger.

Pastor is a third-generation co ee producer, with a lineage that traces back to some of the rst co ee growers in San Agustín. He began his farm at the age of 18 with 4,000 Caturra plants, and today cultivates a variety of cultivars, including Caturra, Pink Bourbon, SL-28, and Papayo. Pastor’s co ee was the rst we purchased from Monkaaba, opening the door to one of our closest relationships. We've been sourcing co ee from Pastor for many years, and it’s always a pleasure to share his exceptional co ee.

Cherries are picked at peak ripeness and left to ferment for 8 hours in sealed bags followed by 12 hours in the hopper. The cherries are then released through the depulper and left to dry ferment for 36 hours. The co ee is then washed 3-5 times and moved directly to raised drying beds. The co ee dries for between 18 days to one month, depending on the weather.

From Ilse: Why we chose this coffee

We picked this coffee because we felt an SL-28 from Colombia would be a fun and challenging coffee to guess, and because we love this coffee! We have been buying coffee from Pastor Ordonez for many years, and this is the first year his SL-28 harvest was big enough to separate as a micro-lot. We tasted a range of flavors in this coffee. Some that are more typical to an SL-28 like currants, and plum but we also got a lot of unique flavors like ginger, eucalyptus, lilac, and tropical yellow fruit.

Statistics

Now onto the top placers:

In first place with 23 points: salt rock lamp!
In second place with 18 points: Scott Michael, NotChet, UnknownSilicon, and willow!
In third place with 16 points: ashton, AaronPez, and brrruuppp!

Thanks to all who guessed! If you'd like to buy more from Ilse, buy here: Coffee & Subscriptions – ILSE Coffee

Be sure to guess if you join us for a mystery round. Join us for Patch here: PATCH X MYSTERY COFFEE LEAGUE USA SEPTEMBER – Patch: a roasting project