The Story of Café Limón

Market sign by our resident artist Piper

By Tony Gudkov

The story of our Café Limón, a flagship Corberosa Coffee beverage proudly served all summer at San Luis Obispo's Farmers Market, starts in Medellin, Colombia. Jotted into a notebook by Corberosa Founder Colin Princi, our one-of-a-kind Limón has since been preserved by a meticulous design process and by you: the Farmers' goers who take a chance on this startling drink.

The inspiration: Colombia’s Guandolo. Found at roadside stands in the Antioquian highlands, this cold brew is sweetened with sugarcane and spritzed with lime, the product of a culture that values both ritual and refreshment. Traditionally made with rich, grainy panela and a splash of any citrus, Guandolo is a drink for the people, rooted in the desires of hot, rural summers.

Winding between coffee plantations near the "City of Eternal Spring," Colin was delighted to find a spring of his own atop a steep turnout, where chilled, molasses-tinted Guandolos flowed. Our Limón's blueprint was drawn right there. In the years that have followed, Corberosa's Café Limón has laid its own foundation with a measured blend (I'm talking ratios like 1/7) of four single origins from four continents, some roasted separately from our retail selection, specifically for this audacious nectar.

While we trace our Limón to the effervescent Guandolo, the grassroots of this coffee-citrus contradiction are found elsewhere.

The unwritten romance between coffee and citrus plays out all around the world. In Italy, they say the first combination of coffee and lemon--don't they claim the first of everything?--was caffè cannarino, a lemon juice-topped espresso shot also known as caffè al limone or Roman espresso. Then there is France, which has no claim, but invariably makes one nonetheless. Closer to Colombia, the culinary traditions of Brazil, apparently exotic and steeped in adventure. The trendy Brazilian lemonade, which has recently blown up on social media, serves as the base of this Brazilian Thunderbolt.

The Thunderbolt itself originates closer to home: popularized in 2015 by Brooklyn experimentalists Stand Coffee, it can be found off-menu at hip cafés across the States. While the Thunderbolt is far from the coffee-citrus motherland, it brings us closer to the truth. According to Stand's own coffee director, Nate Long, coffee lemonade most likely originates in Russia, where they have been starting their mornings with kofyeh slimonem for centuries.

Our neighbors: knotandmoon!

While our Limón shares a common tang with these inventions, it maintains an impressively full body thanks to an intentionally structured blend. The notable presence of Ethiopia in our dark brew inspires the mysterious blueberry-lemon flirtation found in doughy scones and experimental iced teas. Four continents' worth of cacao notes, a chocolate passport in itself, leave a silky finish on the palate. Our Limón's mouth feel and caffeine buzz are unlike anything I've experienced in the coffee sphere: the definition of sensational.

Need to try for yourself? We'll be on the corner of Higuera and Garden this Thursday from 5-9 pm!

PS: I began writing this blog in Marseille. In an upcoming Southern Europe feature, my coffee trail will take us from Antibes to Porto, crossing paths with the Romans as I try Roman espresso for myself and compare it with our Café Limón. See you there.