Horsham Coffee Roaster: Colombia, La Riviera - Microlot, Natural

This is the first coffee to be featured in our range of Limited Edition Microlot coffees. These coffees are small microlots with high cupping scores, interesting and unusual varietals but also showcasing unique and unusual processing methods that differ from the traditional washed, natural and honey process methods.

This amazing coffee comes from La Riviera, a farm owned and operated by Julio Madrid. This is a large farm covering 130 hectares but is broken down into smaller plots allowing traceabiltiy and varietal seperation. They grown 9 different varietals including Geisha and Pink Bourbon.

This particular microlot was harvested from Geisha varietal trees with cherry ripeness at a brix reading of over 18. Brix is a measurement of sugar content within the cherry and a great way determine cherry ripeness. After harvesting the coffee was stored in sacks for 12 hrs allowing the temperature of the cherry mass to rise to 35 degrees celsius. The coffee was then transferred to large plastic bags which were sealed and stored for 3 days at a cool temerature of 13-15 degrees celsius.

After storage the coffee was washed in a flotation tank to remove any remaining defects and dried in a solar drier for 20 days.

The main difference between this Cold Process natural process and traditional methods is the initial storage of the coffee cherry. Doing this kick starts a fermentation process that alters the flavour compounds developed within the coffee bean. The results are stunning! Not only do with have an interesting, low yield varietal know for producing great coffee but also an interesting experiemental processing method.

This is a very complex coffee with wonderful tropical fruit notes. The acidity is fairly mellow and reminds us of melon, macerated sweet strawberries with a silky, creamy body.