Colombia
Finca La Aurora
250g
QUALITY SCORE: 88.00
Cup Notes
Blackberry / Muscovado Sugar / Date
Suggested for espresso and filter
when we roast
We freshly roast to order all coffees on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (excluding national holidays), and ship the same day! Cut-off time is 11:59pm (UTC+1) of the day before the roast day. *We only ship whole beans*
Details
- Quality Score
- 88.00
- Producer
- Several Small Farmers
- Country
- Colombia
- Terroir
- Caldas
- Altitude
- 1800 masl
- Process
- Classic Natural
- Arabica cultivar
- Colombia & Castillo Naranjal
- Picked in
- June 2020
- Shipped in
- Jute + GrainPro
- Roast profile by
- Rubens Gardelli
- Roasted on
- Customised solid-drum roaster
THE STORY BEHIND
Finca La Aurora is located in the Caldas Department, Colombia. Operated by Rubiel Orrego, La Aurora serves as a central collection point for cherry that is purchased at stable and predictable prices from coffee producers in the area surrounding the farm. The coffee collected here is used to produce lots processed with washed, honey and natural methods.
The Finca is situated at 1810 meters above sea level, which is an ideal altitude for processing high-quality coffee. Specialised drying rooms were constructed in 2017 providing Rubiel greater control over production variables. The coffee is protected from weather and temperature variations, As well as providing cover against the elements, and Rubiel is able to control the drying time of the coffee.
For natural processing, coffee grown at altitude in and around La Aurora is hand-sorted and delivered in the cool of the early morning to the Villamaria drying station, located outside the town of Chinchina. Coffee is placed in buckets prior to delivery to Villamaria, so it undergoes a 24-hour aerobic fermentation prior to drying.
At 1300 meters above sea level, the humidity and daytime temperature are ideal for drying naturally processed coffee. Coffee is dried on multilayered raised beds in specialised drying rooms for 15 days, after which it is placed in temperature-controlled drying silos for 3 more days to finish the drying process. These practices, coupled with the high altitude of the coffee cultivation, sorting by hand, and pre-drying fermentation, deliver a delicious tropical and juicy profile.
Producers receive payments for their cherry that guarantee 40% profit on the relative cost of production of traditional washed coffee. This equals payments 35% above the average internal market price across the 12 months from September 2019.
The producers deliver their cherries to the project since they are certain to have a market for their production, a profitable and sustainable operation, and immediate payment for their coffee.
THE VARIETY
COLOMBIA
Using Catimor’s HdT x Caturra recipe as a blueprint, Cenicaf first created the Colombia variety as an F5 composite, and released it in 1982.
CASTILLO
Castillo is named after the researcher Jamie Castillo, who helped Cenicafe, Colombia’s coffee research centre, develop the varietal in 2005.
Castillo was designed as an improvement on the Colombia variety. It is resistant to leaf rust (roya) and has quickly become the most planted coffee in Colombia. It is high-yield, resistant to leaf rust and other prevalent diseases and its smaller size allows for greater planting density.
Castillo Naranjal is the name of the variety typical of Caldas, Colombia area.
THE FERMENTATION PROCESS
Dry process seems simple: pick the fruit, lay it out in the sun until it turns from red to brown to near-black, and then hull off the thick, dried outer layer in one step to reveal the green bean. It is a method suited to arid regions, where the sun and heat can dry the seed inside the intact fruit skin.
It's often referred to as "natural coffee" because of its simplicity, and because the fruit remains intact and undisturbed, a bit like drying grapes into raisins. Since it requires minimal investment, the dry process method is a default to create cheap commodity-grade coffee in areas that have the right climate capable of drying the fruit and seed.
But it’s a fail in humid or wet regions. If the drying isn't progressing fast enough, the fruit degrades, rots or gets covered with mould.
Dry-processed coffees can also be wildly inconsistent. If you want a cleanly-fruited, sweet, intense cup, dry process (DP) takes more hand labor than wet process. Even the most careful pickers will take green unripe or semi-ripe coffee off the branch as they pick red, ripe cherry. If these are not removed in the first days of drying, the green turns to brown that is hard to distinguish from the ripe fruit.
