Colombia
El Mirador Terra Nova
250g
QUALITY SCORE: 87.75
Cup Notes
Lemongrass / Sugar Cane / Prune / Marzipan
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
- 87.75
- Series
- Specialty
- Producer
- Andres Torres
- Country
- Colombia
- Terroir
- Huila
- Altitude
- 1670 masl
- Process
- Classic Washed - Raised Beds
- Arabica cultivar
- Caturra
- Picked in
- July 2020
- Arrived in
- February 2021
- Shipped in
- Jute + GrainPro
- Roast profile by
- Rubens Gardelli
- Roasted on
- Customised solid-drum roaster
THE STORY BEHIND
Jairo and Andres Torres are father and son. Jairo bought the farm El Mirador in 2004, and his son Andres joined, starting his own special project plot called Terra Nova. The whole family is involved in the management of the finca. Andres' wife cooks for the workers whilst his brothers execute the maintenance on the farm. His father focusses on post-harvest processing, washing and drying the coffee. In the off-season there are four employees helping the family out on the farm, but during the harvest season there is work for more than 20 people.
The Torres' rely on the farm for their livelihoods: they work hard to produce coffee of the best quality, as the sales have a direct impact on their life quality. They seek to introduce varies sustainable practices into the production. For example, the coffee cherries are treated in pits before decomposing them. The decomposed and dried cherry biomass is used to fertilise the crops.
THE VARIETY
Caturra coffee varietal was developed by the Alcides Carvalho Coffee Center of the IAC, Instituto Agronomico of the Sao Paulo State in Brazil.
In 1937, IAC received seed samples of genetic material originating from the area on the border of the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. The samples came from Red Caturra and Yellow Caturra cultivars. These two cultivars originated by natural mutation of Bourbon Red, originally a tall coffee shrub, found in the Serra do Caparaó, which is now a mountainous National Park to the north east of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
This is the first naturally occurring coffee mutation found, with small size and high yield capacity. Red and Yellow Caturra are characterised by the cherries sitting close to each other on the coffee shrub. These varietals have excellent cup quality, because they are genetically very close to the Bourbon varietal.
THE FERMENTATION PROCESS
Washed coffees showcase solely the bean. They let you taste you what’s on the inside, not the outside. Washed coffees depend almost 100% on the bean having absorbed enough natural sugars and nutrients during its growing cycle. This means the varietal, soil, weather, ripeness, fermentation, washing, and drying are absolutely key.
Washed coffees reflect both the science of growing the perfect coffee bean and the fact that farmers are an integral part of crafting the taste of a coffee bean. When looking at washed coffees, it becomes apparent that the country of origin and environmental conditions play a vital role in adding to the flavour.
During wet processing, the pulp (i.e.the exocarp and a part of the mesocarp) is removed mechanically. The remaining mesocarp, called mucilage, sticks to the parchment and is also removed before drying. During this process, the sugars present in the mucilage are removed through natural fermentation or mechanical scrubbing. Mucilage is insoluble in water and clings to parchment too strongly to be removed by simple washing. Mucilage can be removed by fermentation followed by washing or by strong friction in machines called mucilage removers. Fermentation can be done by stacking the coffee outside or placing it under water and allowing nature to take its course. After the sugars are removed, the beans then can be taken through a secondary washing to remove any additional debris, or taken immediately to the beds for drying.
MORE INFO
Click on a thumbnail to load the video
