This Caturra micro-lot comes from Las Alasitas, a small farm owned by Pedro Rodriguez. Las Alasitas is located in the colony of Bolinda, which lies in a lush, steep mountain valley around 10 kilometres outside of the town of Caranavi. Pedro has trialled several varieties on this farm, including Geisha, San Bernardo, and Java.

The farm sits at about 1,642 metres above sea level and has incredible views over the Los Rodriguez farms and mountains beyond. The high altitude of Las Alasistas helps to ensure a slow maturation of the cherry because of the stable night-time temperature and mild day temperatures. The slow maturation leads to an increased concentration of sugars in the cherry and bean, which in turn helps to produce a sweeter cup of coffee.

At Las Alasitas, Pedro hires pickers from the Villa Rosario community to carefully handpick the coffee during the harvest. These pickers are trained to select only the very ripest cherries, and multiple passes are made through the farm throughout the harvest to ensure the coffee is picked at its prime. Selective picking is always very important and is particularly important for naturally processed lots like this one, to ensure a very sweet and clean cup.

Cherries for this lot were delivered to Agricafe’s state of the art mill Buena Vista in the evening. After being inspected and weighed, the coffee cherry was carefully sorted by weight using water, and floaters were removed. Following this, the coffee was placed a conveyor belt and disinfected, in a similar process used for wine grapes, and was then pulped mechanically. For this lot, onsite oenologist Iván Hugas prepared a solution (which the Rodríguez family call coffee ‘mosto’) with a carefully calculated level of the harvested bacteria or yeasts, and added it to the wet parchment as it was placed in sealed stainless steel tanks, catalysing a controlled fermentation.

The team made sure the lid remained shut for the full period of fermentation, to ensure no oxygen touched the coffee and that the punch-like, boozy aroma remained trapped inside. The tanks were closely monitored throughout the ferment process and the coffee was removed after 48 hours, when the desired fermentation was complete. <br><br>The wet parchment was then washed with fresh, clean water and carefully machine-dried using a ‘guardiola,’ a horizontal, rotating drum that gets rid of moisture by creating a warm, consistent flow of air around the coffee.