Satsuma Culturing – Immigrant Culture Coffee

Immigrant Coffee is based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and is run by Maurizio Frattini. Maurizio takes incredible pride in the coffee he sources and roasts—and the coffees reflect this attention to quality. Before selecting any coffee for Immigrant Culture, Maurizio personally visits the farm and meets the producer. He decides to work with a producer based not only on the cup score of the coffee but also on how clean their process is (from crop maintenance to actual processing of the coffee), how the farm treats their employees, and what they are doing to give back in their community. It’s a more holistic view of coffee that I really appreciate.

I was able to try a few of Immigrant Culture’s current offerings and they were all unique and exciting. This Satsuma Culturing though was the most complex and exciting in my opinion and absolutely worthy of a full feature. The coffee is grown in Pitalito, Huila Colombia by Diego Bedoya. Diego used to be a wine maker and brought many of those skills over to coffee production. This coffee is first washed and then aged anaerobically for 100 hours with added mandarin skins. Finally, it is aged in Colombian rum barrels called Ron Caldas for 336 hours. If the process makes it sound like it would be an exciting and incredibly unique cup, you’d be absolutely right.

The coffee began with fruity, complex fragrance that was slightly acidic. The flavor profile is incredibly unique and rich with notes of mandarin, stone fruit, raisins, and undertones of rum. As the coffee cooled the spice characteristics died down and the fruit flavor elements came to the forefront. The coffee had a big body and a syrupy mouthfeel that complimented the flavor profile and caramel sweetness quite well.

The Bottom Line

I enjoyed this coffee a lot in many different brew methods. While flash brews are not my go-to this time of year, this coffee especially tasted great with my iced AeroPress recipe. Overall the coffee was very complex with lots of great evolution through the sip and a lot of fun to drink.