Juan Saldarriaga is a producer who has two farms, La Claudina and El Encanto. They are about 60 hectares each, but only 42 planted with coffee in total. The rest is still forest and natural reserve. He’s also working with friends and are managing the production for some surrounding producers with Caturra and other cultivars up to 2000 masl. Many of them are young small farmers that are eager to proof that Antioquia have more than chocolaty and heavy bodied coffees. 

We selected this lot to showcase the powerful fruit qualities and clean body that can be produced through natural processing in Colombia. Brewed as an espresso, this coffee has tasting notes of plum, dark cherry and ripe, pink grapes.

PROCESSING

The coffees cherries are picked in 3-4 passes, meaning the producers/workers pick the ripe cherries in one block before waiting a few weeks until it’s again a decent amount of ripe cherries to pick in that same place. 

The fermentation process is happening inside the closed environment of the coffee cherry, with sugars from the fruit transferring onto the bean. In Narino,  producers are first fermenting the cherry in bags for four days before continuing the drying on the parabolic dryers or mechanically. A higher temperature will speed up the fermentation process, and a lower temperature will slow it down.

Drying in Narino is a big challenge due to rain and high humidity. During drying the producer's hand sort the parchment coffee for impurities and defects. By receiving premium payments, the producers can improve their facilities, by building new or reconstructing the dryers to increase ventilation and potentially add shade nets to slower drying, and hence improve the quality and longevity of the coffee.