Colombia is a coffee producing country that has been innovative in coffee cultivation & processing. This coffee from La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the perfect example of superb processing 🤩

Castillo was created by Café de Colombia’s research centre Cenicafé to create a rust resistant variety. Coffee leaf rust is the biggest threat to coffee farmers, the disease affects the leaves of coffee plants and causes leaves to fall off the tree, which is then unable to produce any coffee cherries 😭

Cenicafé succeeded in giving Castillo the short stature of Caturra, along with relatively high yields, making it a good choice for producers. Castillo is known for its smoothness, aroma, and citric acidity. It's one of the popular coffee varieties in Colombia 🇨🇴

Photo credits to Collaborative Coffee Source

Lactic fermentation is an innovative coffee processing that can only be done by picky picking of fully ripe cherries. All the ripe red cherries are placed in a closed stainless steel tank and the high sugar content provide food for yeast and bacteria to start fermentation.

As the beans ferment, carbon dioxide slowly fills up the tank and air will be chased out. Under these anaerobic conditions (meaning without oxygen), the bacteria that survive will produce lactic acidity, hence the name.

An easy way to see if cherries have been through lactic fermentation is to look at the beans after depulping (see photo above). If everything went well, a bit of alcohol was also produced during the fermentation, transferring some colour from the pulp to the beans.

Once done, the beans are sundried in the greenhouse for 7-14 days until 11% moisture level. A stable level that's suitable for storage and transportation.

As you can see from the beans, its colour is not quite even but that's completely normal for high fermented beans! This also gives great complexity of flavours to the coffee 😍

As a result, the intensity of aromatics is on the next level. Bursting fruity notes of tropical fruits aromatics, you'll get soursop & passion fruit brightness, finish with pineapple 🍍 & some winey twist. A vibrant coffee to kickstart your day!

Also, such high quality coffee usually taste just as great 6-8 weeks after roasting. With proper storage by eliminate minimal air with coffee beans and cool dry place makes this coffee taste ever lastingly good 😍

Check out the Colombia Delagua Campo Alegre here  ☕️