We taste: Cherry, Pomegranate, Confectionary sugar
Region: El Rosario, San Agustin, Huila
Varietal: Tabi
Altitude: 2100 MASL
Harvest: October 2023
Process: Washed
Next roast & ship date: April 29th
It is a great pleasure to welcome Jhon's coffee back to our menu!
This season his coffee is showing beautifully, with a clean profile of soft red fruits reminding us of cherry syrup and pomegranate. The sweetness is really shining on this lot, similar to confectionary sugar.
Jhon's farm sits high in the mountains of San Agustin, in a small town called El Rosario. His farm is at 2100 MASL which far exceeds the norm for the area. It's quite small, with only 2300 Tabi trees. Production is low, each tree harvests about 400 grams of cherry, of which only roughly 20% make it to parchment. Not to mention his farm sits on one of the steepest inclines we have seen. Jhon works extremely hard in one of the most challenging areas to produce his coffee. To produce anything under his conditions is impressive, but once you equate it to how insanely good his coffee is, it's nothing short of a miracle.
About Jhon:
Four years ago, our friends and partners at Semilla purchased Jhon's one-bag lot of Tabi. This was the first time Jhon had sold his coffee as a separated micro-lot and one bag is all that he could set aside due to financial and infrastructure reasons. The rest of his coffee he would sell "En Verde" which essentially means the coffee cherry was de-pulped but not further processed and dried. Buyers would then dry the coffee and sell it at a profit. We see this happen a lot in Colombia and other countries because simply the farmers need to receive payment faster. Seling this way requires way less labor and effort, but they often receive at times 50% of what the market price would be. Whereas in the current system for specialty coffee, to process and properly dry the coffee to produce a better cup you may receive a higher price but the problem is when you receive that payment. Often times producers can't wait as long as it takes and in turn, decide to sell their coffee "wet"
Now, Jhon is able to increase his production from one bag, and for this harvest, he produced 3, of which we purchased all of it. It's crazy to think that someone with the capabilities to produce the level of quality Jhon has can be put in a position where the quality is never recognized and instead gets sold wet.
Stories like this clearly illustrate how the current system by which coffee is sold isn't working for smaller producers.
Processing Details:
Cherries are collected every three weeks at peak ripeness and are floated to
remove underripe and defective seeds. The remaining cherries are left to ferment for
36 hours, before being de-pulped and placed in plastic bags for an additional
fermentation of 72-80 hours. The seeds are then rinsed and turned out on raised drying beds to be dried for 26 days.
Price Breakdown:
Farm Gate Price: 2,500,000 Colombian Pesos / Carga
FOB Price: $3.45/LB
Our Price: $5.15/LB
We roast to order every Monday and ship on Tuesday