COLOMBIA
tropical fruits ∙ oranges ∙ cashew nuts
This coffee is a microlot of 350 kg coffee beans grown in Medardo Aldana’s farm near the village of Buenavista located in the Cundinamarca department of Colombia. The processing specialist team of La Palma & El Tucán has done the postharvest processing of this coffee. It’s a combination of Typica, Caturra, Castillo, Colombia and Bourbon varieties.
hile Brazil is the world’s biggest coffee producer giving about 30–35% of the world’s total coffee production, Colombia comes second supplying approximately 12% of the world’s coffee. Colombia’s coffee is of excellent quality, grown at high altitudes on small peasant holdings, and the coffee is carefully picked and is wet-processed. The Colombian Federation of Coffee Growers is a wellorganised body representing and supporting the country’s small-holder coffee farmers. Colombia has over 600 000 small, less than 5-acre-farms nestled in the hills at roughly 1200 to 2 000 meters above the sea level. The Andes run along the whole country not only splitting the country into sections, but forming diverse micro-climates as well. he coffee you are holding in your hands is grown in Cundinamarca, which is an area located on the eastern range of the Colombian Andes, about 1750 meters above the sea level. This region has unique micro-climates with temperatures averaging 21 °C, a relative humidity of 75% and a minimum of 1600 sunny hours per year. These features make Cundinamarca a land of great biodiversity with ideal conditions for producing high-grown speciality coffee. The Colombian
based processing specialist team of La Palma & El Tucán has done the post-harvest processing of this coffee. Medardo is a retired equipment operator for the National Railways. He is 76 years old and lives with his wife at Buenavista village. Nine years ago he bought a 1-hectare farm his wife to grow coffee for their livelihood. They have 6 children but they all work and live in Bogota. He planted 3.000 coffee trees of Castillo variety with the support of the National Coffee Federation and now he is planning to plant another 1000 trees. Elvira, his wife, also actively participates in working on the farm. She helps with the cherry picking, processing and drying of the coffees. He says that he is very happy to be working with La Palma & El Tucán’s Neighbors & Crops program, because finally he can focus on growing the coffee trees, since the hard work of picking cherries and processing them is organised by the program. Before he had decided to sell his production to the Palma & El Tucán’s Neighbors & Crops project, he and his wife had to do all the work themselves and just like the majority of the coffee growing families in their region, they ended up delivering wet parchment that was poorly paid by the local
buyers at Cachipay. He is now excited about the coming harvest because he thinks his farm will have better productivity in 2015. He says his trees are “loaded” and he will be happy to sell all his coffee cherries to La Palma & El Tucán for the third time. During the processing of the beans La Palma & El Tucán attempts to to achieve a higher concentration of lactic acid bacteria during the fermentation processes, by focusing on anaerobic methods. This type of bacteria produce lactic acid as a result of the mucilage´s carbohydrate fermentation, which in turn contributes to the distinctive flavour profile of the resulting cup. The beans are then sun dried over 15 days to reach the optimal moisture content.
... To achieve the best taste experience possible use soft water and freshly ground coffee. Let it rest for a week after roasting but consume it within one month. Enjoy! the Casino Mocca team
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photo by the La Palma & El Tucán
Medardo Aldana
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