Colombia
El Silencio
QUALITY SCORE: 88.25
Cup Notes
Watermelon / Cherry / Mango / Pomegranate / Dark Chocolate
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
- 88.25
- Series
- Specialty
- Producer
- Robinson Rivera
- Country
- Colombia
- Terroir
- Cauca
- Altitude
- 1700 - 1850 masl
- Process
- Anaerobic Natural - Raised Beds
- Arabica cultivar
- Castillo
- Picked in
- August 2021
- Arrived in
- January 2022
- Shipped in
- Jute + GrainPro
- Roast profile by
- Rubens Gardelli
- Roasted on
- Customised solid-drum roaster
THE STORY BEHIND
This lot comes from the El Silencio farm, situated at 1700-1850 masl. Only Castillo is cultivated on the 6 hectares of coffee growing area. The producer Robinson Rivera has been growing coffee for 18 years. For five years, he has been part of Asociación de Caficultores del Centro del Cauca por la Paz (ACC) - a non-profit organisation that was created in 2016 in Piendamó, Cauca. Its purpose has always been improving the coffee quality, from cultivation to comercialisation, and by improving these the association aims to have social impact in the region such as reducing poverty and tackling social conflicts. ACC has 77 associates with an average of 1.5 hectares of land that are situated between 1,700 and 2,100 masl.
THE VARIETY
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.
THE FERMENTATION PROCESS
As producers give increasing consideration to the effect of fermentation on the quality and profile of their coffee, they are adopting different and interesting techniques to their repertoires in order to diversify their offering. One method that is becoming more popular is fermenting coffee in a controlled anaerobic environment, meaning that the coffee is held in a vessel without any presence of oxygen for a part of the fermentation process.
This naturally processed lot undergoes tank fermentation for 48 hours before being silo-dried at 28 degrees. Drying is paused at 16 hours and the temperature is raised to 37 degrees until the humidity level of the beans is at 20%. The coffee is then left in sealed barrels for 24 hour before then being dried down to 10% in a parabolic drier.
