Manhattan – Los Patios Watermelon Co-Ferment 250g | Colombia

Los Patios is the result of a genuinely deliberate piece of coffee R&D — sourced through The Coffee Quest and developed specifically to push Castillo somewhere it doesn't normally go. Castillo has a reputation for being a robust, reliably productive variety with a fairly traditional cup profile; this lot takes that base and layers in a bright watermelon fruit character through fermentation, aiming for something more playful without losing the variety's underlying structure.

The technique itself is precise: the cherries are fermented with a watermelon concentrate for two full days, a process designed to let the coffee absorb the fruit's character during that window. Once the fermentation and absorption phase wraps up, the coffee is drained and moved into mechanical silos, where it dries for eight straight days under constant monitoring and rotation — a level of control that's aimed squarely at even, consistent drying rather than leaving anything to chance.

Behind the process is Los Patios itself, a processing facility established in June 2022 that's grown into more than just a place cherries pass through — it functions as a hub for collaboration with local producers and a testing ground for new processing ideas. Since April 2023, the site has run a dedicated Research & Development team, and this watermelon-fermented Castillo is one of the clearer examples of what that team has been working on: projects aimed at lifting cupping scores and building distinctive, repeatable flavour profiles using proprietary fruit concentrates alongside more traditional coffee character.

The project is led by Juliana Serna and Alberto Gutierrez, whose focus has been on turning experimental processing into something consistent enough to scale and revisit — not just a one-off novelty lot. Grown in Huila between 1,600 and 1,900 MASL, this Castillo carries melon, grapefruit cordial and purple Fruittella in the cup — a genuinely unusual, fruit-forward profile for a variety that doesn't always get this kind of experimental treatment. Suitable for filter brewing.

Freshly roasted by Manhattan Coffee Roasters in Rotterdam and imported to the UK by ROAST EDIT Co.