Sticky Pudding | Colombia

Colombia — CATA Export Designed Coffees "Sticky Pudding" Bourbon (Co-Fermented Washed)

Tastes Like — 🌰 Cinnamon • 🌲 Fresh Fir • 🌿 Cardamom

DETAILS

• Producer: CATA Export Designed Coffees programme (credited by DAK as "Cat & Pierre")
• Region: Huila, Colombia
• Varietal: Bourbon
• Process: Co-Fermented Washed (high intervention)
• Altitude: 2,000 masl
• Harvest: 2026
• Roaster: DAK Coffee Roasters

INTRO
DAK's Christmas coffee, created with CATA Export in Colombia and inspired by the festive season. This Bourbon undergoes a co-fermentation with cinnamon, cardamom, mandarin, and cherry, giving it a distinctive profile while keeping plenty of sweetness in the cup. In the cup: cinnamon, fresh fir, and cardamom, a very festive profile.

THE PRODUCER
The coffee is part of CATA Export's Designed Coffees programme, where the starting point is a particular flavour profile. Rather than working with a single farm, CATA brings together a community of producers who follow the same harvesting, fermentation, and drying protocols. Each coffee is processed with a carefully selected blend of fresh botanicals, allowing specific profiles to be developed while keeping consistency across lots.

Cata Reserva is a 30-hectare farm in Timaná, Huila, at 2,000 masl. Half the property is preserved as natural forest, and about seven hectares are planted with varieties including Pink Bourbon, Gesha, and Laurina. The farm avoids chemical fertilisers and glyphosate.

Bourbon is one of the oldest and most influential Arabica varieties, known for excellent cup quality and sweetness. It reached Bourbon Island (now La Réunion) in the early 18th century with French missionaries, and became the parent of Caturra, Mundo Novo, and Catuaí.

THE PROCESS
The Co-Fermented Washed process for this lot involves:

🍒 Selective harvest — a minimum of 80% fully ripe cherries
💧 Flotation — floated to remove defects
🌙 Oxidation — 24 hours before depulping
🌱 Dry depulping — depulped without water
🌿 Co-fermentation — submerged for 72 hours with yeast and a fresh botanical blend of cinnamon, cardamom, mandarin, and cherry
♨️ Mechanical drying — 76 hours at a controlled 40°C
📦 Stabilisation — packed in hermetic GrainPro bags to stabilise before export

DAK rates the intervention level as high: the botanical co-fermentation introduces flavours beyond those developed through traditional processing, for a deliberately festive profile.

THE CUP
Festive and sweet: pronounced cinnamon and cardamom spice with fresh fir, over a sweet base.

Flavour Notes
🌰 Cinnamon 🌲 Fresh Fir 🌿 Cardamom