Chiroso · Finca El Diviso, Pitalito, Huila
Colombia · 1,750 masl · Nestor and Adrian Lasso
Controlled natural, multi-stage: 36 hr oxidation, then ~48 hr sealed at 17-20°C, then 24 hr submerged with the leachate recirculated. Thermal-shock halt, then sealed drying to 10-11% moisture.
Chiroso is a bright, aromatic variety, and the Lasso family's multi-stage natural has layered sweet apple and red fruit over a rounded cocoa base, with a cooling menthol lift that is the signature of this lot. The AeroPress brews it as a concentrated immersion that rounds the cocoa out, then a splash of bypass keeps the apple and red fruit clean and lifted.
We brew it upright, not inverted. The menthol is a delicate, volatile note and this is already a loud ferment, so flipping an inverted chamber churns the slurry right before the press and muddies that clarity. Upright keeps the agitation gentle and loses less heat. Sort your water and grind, then brew.
Magnesium 18, bicarbonate 8 (the lowest we tested), chloride 62. The magnesium lifts the apple-tart acidity and red fruit, the low bicarbonate keeps the brightness and the menthol defined, and the chloride supports the juicy, rounded cocoa this natural is built on.
A clean, high-clarity immersion with more body than the filter. Sweet apple tart and red fruit up top, a rounder cocoa and tamarind-jam middle built by the steep, and a cooling minty-chocolate lift that defines as it cools. The bypass keeps the fruit clean on top. If the menthol turns medicinal or the cup reads boozy, drop the temperature before you touch the grind.