This Centroamericano variety is a hybrid of the Ethiopian Rume Sudan and the Central American Sarchimor. This is our fifth year buying the Centroamericano from Aquiares, and every year we buy all three processes (washed, red honey, and natural). It offers a unique opportunity to try the same variety from the same farm and compare the difference in flavour from process to process.
Starting with the washed process, the cup is bursting with citrusy brightness and the crisp sweetness of cherry, but is balanced by a malty undertone. Moving into the honey and natural processes, those flavours are modulated and deepened. The honey process goes further into those stone fruit and citrus notes, but some tropicals start to pop out and the body gets softer and lusher. The citrus acidity moves from a mandarin orange to more of a blood orange or tangelo. Going into the natural process, the body becomes thicker and more intense, and the flavour goes even further into funky tropical fruit like papaya, with some jammy blackberry undertones in there and a cacao nib finish.
Overall, it's a unique flavour experience, because you're tasting the flavour profile evolve as more fruit is left on the seed. The best metaphor I can think of is comparing it to looking at different shades of the same colour - same overall palette, but the hue is shifted.