Traditional Colombian coffee bags at Banexport's dry mill in Pitalito, Huila Department, Colombia
In June I was fortunate enough to travel to Colombia with a handful of other roasters to source some beautiful microlots for our shops. As with my trip to Guatemala, my goals were to develop relationships with just a couple of producers that we could work with year after year. And, as with my trip to Guatemala, I ended up developing more than just a couple of relationships with spectacular producers and buying way more coffee than I originally intended! I get so excited about the coffees I’ve discovered on my trips, the farmers I meet, and their farms I’ve visited, that I ultimately end up wanting to share all of my many amazing experiences with the customers and staff at Case Study.
More coffee bags! Banexport dry mill, Pitalito, Huila Department, Colombia
Currently we are enjoying the first of 5 lots of Colombian coffees I discovered and selected from my travels, Finca El Naranjo from producer Gonzalo Dagua. As mentioned in a previous post, I cupped this at the Banexport mill in the Cauca region. This particular farm was unfortunately too far to travel to on our limited time frame, so I did not get to meet the producer personally.
The entire group of roasters was stunned by this coffee on the cupping table, and I was delighted to see it was 100% Colombia variety. While this variety does have some Castillo in it’s genes, which while rust resistant can sometimes lead to off flavors in the cup, Jairo Ruiz and his team at Banexport have been working with producers to harvest this varietal differently, hence eliminating potential off flavors and producing spectacular coffee. It turns out that the Colombia variety is best picked at what would typically be considered over-ripe (purple coffee cherries) by most quality harvesting standards. Good news for farmers who plant this rust-resistant varietal and still want to produce top-quality specialty coffee.
Jairo Ruiz of Banexport in his dry mill in Popayan, Cauca department, Colombia
This post will be the first in a series about the Case Study Colombia origin trip and the many wonderful Colombian coffees we will all be enjoying together, and the amazing producers who made them possible.
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