How to Brew Our 94-Point Wilton Benítez Decaf: A V60 Recipe from a Comandante Champion
Photo: @parkerjcraft
Our Red Bourbon | Wilton Benítez | Sugarcane EA Decaf earned a 94-point score from Coffee Review in April 2026, the highest rating ever given to a decaffeinated coffee. Caramel, peach, red fruit, bergamot, cola, ginger. That range of flavor is the direct result of how Wilton Benítez processes this lot.
It is also, we will admit, one of the trickier coffees we have ever put in front of a V60.
Why This Coffee Fights Your Filter
Wilton Benítez does not do anything halfway. The cherries are sterilized with ozonated water and UV light, fermented for 48 hours with Saccharomyces pastorianus yeast, pulped, fermented again for 68 hours in the coffee’s own juices, then dried at low temperature and finished with sugarcane (EA) decaffeination.
All of that structure is what makes the cup so layered. It also makes the bean behave differently in the grinder and in the brewer.
Two things tend to happen:
The bed stalls. Heavily fermented, EA-processed coffees produce a lot of fine particles and dissolved sugars that blind the paper. Drawdown slows, then slows more, and a brew you planned for three minutes ends up at five. What comes out is muddled and drying instead of juicy.
People over-correct. The natural instinct after a stall is to grind coarser and pour slower, which usually trades the clog for a thin, sour cup that hides everything interesting about this lot.
The fix is not brute force. It is a slower, gentler brew that doesn’t disturb the bed enough to create a fines migration problem in the first place.
Who Built This Recipe
We asked our good friend, Jongrin Kim, to dial it in.
Jongrin is a coffee trainer at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters here in San Diego, originally from Seoul, and the reigning Comandante Champion USA. He entered his first competition on a whim after seeing a single ticket left on the registration page, then won the whole thing on a blind-judged AeroPress routine he refused to change between rounds.
His approach to brewing is the reason this recipe works. In his own account of the competition, he describes controlling every variable ahead of time: preheating the brewer and timing the routine to the second. That obsessive attention to small details is exactly what a coffee like this one rewards.
He built the following recipe specifically for our Red Bourbon on a Hario V60.
The Recipe
Coffee: Red Bourbon | Wilton Benítez | Sugarcane EA Decaf | Colombia
Roast level: Light
Rest: 2 to 4 days off roast
Setup
| Dripper | Hario V60 Resin 02 |
| Dose | 15 to 16g (start with 15g) |
| Yield | 240g |
| Ratio | 1:16 to 1:15 |
| Water temp | 94 to 95°C (start with 94°C) |
| Grind size | 24 to 26 clicks, Comandante C40 (start with 26) |
Have a different grinder? Find your grinder settings here.
Pour Technique
| Height | Low |
| Flow rate | Slow |
| Arm movement | Standard |
Pour Schedule
| Time | Pour finishes | Total water | Style |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | ~0:10 | 45g | Spiral pour |
| 0:30 | ~0:55 | 150g | Spiral pour |
| 1:15 | ~1:35 | 240g | Center pour |
Target total time: 3:00 to 3:30.
Why It Works
The grind starts coarse on purpose. Twenty-six clicks is coarser than most people run a light roast V60, and that is the point. It buys you drawdown headroom on a coffee that wants to clog. Only tighten toward 24 if the cup tastes thin and the brew is finishing well under three minutes.
Low and slow keeps fines where they belong. Pouring from a low height with a gentle stream avoids agitating the bed into a silty layer on the paper. This is the single biggest lever on this coffee.
The final pour goes to the center. After the second spiral has done the work of even saturation, a center pour at 1:15 adds the last 90g without churning the bed again. It keeps the filter clear while the brew finishes.
Temperature stays moderate. At 94°C you get sweetness and body without pushing the fermentation notes into anything harsh. If the cup reads flat, 95°C is your ceiling.
Troubleshooting
Still stalling past 3:30? Go one click coarser and pour lower. Resist the urge to speed up your stream.
Thin, sour, or finishing under 2:45? Tighten one click at a time and consider moving to 95°C.
Cup tastes hollow in the middle? Bump the dose to 16g while keeping the yield at 240g for a 1:15 ratio and a bit more density.
Let it cool. A lot of drinkers find this coffee opens up as it drops toward room temperature. The cola and bergamot notes tend to arrive late.
Recipe developed by Jongrin Kim, Comandante Champion USA and coffee trainer at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, San Diego.