Horsham Coffee Roaster: Colombia, Villa Esperanza, Experimental Wet Ferment, Washed

There is no doubt that Colombia has become one of our favourite producing countries. We love the diversity on offer, range of processing styles and recent focus on scientific and experimental processing methods. Most of the amazing coffees we buy from Colombia come from very small farms covering ten hectares and are typically bright, juicy washed coffees. This one is a litte bit different. It's a lovely juicy washed coffee but the process has brought out a slightly different flavour profile.

This coffee comes from a farm owned and manged by Diego Samual Bermudez. Diego works on the farm located near to El Tambo in the Cauca region and lives on the farm with his wife, two daughters and his two brothers.

The farm covers 27 hectares at 1700masl and is planted with several varietals that include Castillo, Colombia, Caturra and Geisha. They focus on very careful tree care and maintenance allowing them to produce a variety of coffees using varietal separation and different post harvest processing methods.

This particular coffee was processed as a washed coffee but using controlled and tracked methods. After careful harvesting the coffee was left to rest in bags for 24 hrs at a temperature of 19 degrees C. The coffee was then pulped to remove the outer fruit layer and fermented in water at a temperature of 24 degrees C for 36 hrs. After this fermentation stage the coffee was washed with water at a temp of 40 degrees C and then immediately cooled by washing with water at 12 degrees C.

Once complete the coffee was dried in a mechanical drier at a stable temperature of 32 degrees until it reached a moisture content of 11%. Mechanical drying experimentation has become more popular recently as the temperature can be controlled very carefully. While drying on raised tables is often believed to yield the best results this might not always be the case as the coffee can get very hot during the day and quite cold at night. Drying at a stable, even temperature helps producers to maintain full control over the drying process.