Colombia | Los Aguacates

Regular price $26.00
Unit price
per 

Region: Ibagué, Tolima
Altitude: 1,850 metres above sea level
Varietal: Caturra, Colombia
Process: Washed
Producer: Luis Ernesto Nieto
Sourcing Partner: Mercanta

Lots of nuanced flavours and texture in this coffee, backed by notes of papaya and lime, and sticky caramel on the finish. Los Aguacates has medium brightness and a clean aftertaste. 

Recommended for all brew methods. 

Origin Story
Luis Ernesto has been surrounded by coffee his whole life. A third-generation coffee farmer, Luis inherited his farm, Los Aguacates, from his father Don Ernesto Senior. Today, Luis manages his family farm along with his wife Cenaida and his oldest son Jaider. As well as supporting his own family, Luis is a community leader within China Alta, a municipality with lots of potential due to its climate and high altitude. Luis works alongside other producers, encouraging them to engage in specialty coffee programs in the region.

Tolima has historically been difficult to traverse. In recent years, the area was heavily infiltrated by the Colombian leftist army, the FARC. FARC's presence contributed to the region’s isolation and gave the area a reputation as being unsafe and violent.

Coffee is the leading agricultural activity in the region, followed by the production of beans and the raising of cattle. These small scale farming activities provide the largest percentage of employment by a significant margin. The importance of coffee to the local economy and livelihoods cannot be overstated.


Processing
Producers in Tolima are overwhelmingly small-holders, each owning their own small mechanical or hand pulper; located on the family farm. Once the harvested ripe cherries are pulped, the parchment coffee is next placed in large tanks and fermented for roughly 48 hours, to remove the remaining mucilage. Several layers of wet parchment are added incrementally over a few days, imparting complexity to the fermentation process and final cup profile.

Finally, once fermented, the coffee is removed and placed on raised parabolic beds to dry, until its moisture content reaches just below 12%. Tolima is blessed with some of the best drying conditions in the country due to the micro-climate and high altitude of the region, providing lower relative humidity, more wind and more sunny days than other areas of the country.