Nestor Lasso is a complete rockstar of a coffee producer in Pitalito Huila, and we're honoured to serve his coffee this year. We're offering two of his coffees this season, and they're special.... on flavour alone, they're two of the most stunning of the season. This washed coffee is a Pink Bourbon varietal. PB is like a psuedo-geisha. Some of the same florals, same stone fruits, but more full and round, and the cherries are a lovely pearly pink colour. We think this coffee has notes of Cranberry, Lilly, and Yellow Plum, and it's absolutely worth your time.
We sourced this coffee with our friends at Falcon Coffee, who are on the forefront of producer empowerment in Colombia. You can read more about the producer and his story below.
This coffee comes from 24-year-old producer Nestor Lasso and the El Diviso farm. The farm covers an 18-hectare area comprised of 15 ha of coffee and 2 ha of forest area. The farm carries great diversity of varietals, currently home to Caturra, Colombia, Castillo, Tabi, Pink Bourbon, Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Bourbon Ají, Caturra Chiroso, Geisha, Sidra, Java, Pacamara. Nestor is using fully washed, semi-washed and natural methods, and uses parabolic dryers as well as raised African beds and some mechanical drying. 80,000 coffee trees grow here at a range of 1700-1850 meters. Producer Nestor says, “We are the third generation that has been growing coffee. Our grandfather, José Uribe, was the founder of the farm El Diviso. With the work of the whole family and constant savings we were able to build the infrastructure to process differentiated coffees; searching for better quality, both in coffee and in our lives. After a long trial and error period, we managed to standardise different processes, getting a better income in order to plant new varieties that allowed us to have better quality. One of our dreams is to produce specialty coffee that reaches all the world.”
For this washed process coffee, first the floating process is done in order to select the best cherries only (fully ripe). Anaerobic fermentation then occurs in bags or jars during 32 hours at an average temperature of 17° Celsius. The cherries are then moved to a tank for an oxidation process of 12 hours. The coffee is pulped and then oxidation of the mucilage and coffee beans occurs for 40 hours. The coffee then gets submerged fermentation at 40° Celsius for 80 hours, occasionally being stirred. The coffee is then washed in order to rid the mucilage. Thermal shock takes place as the coffee is washed with water at 65-70° Celsius to finish the fermentation. Next, the coffee is moved to parabolic drying systems that reach a maximum temperature of 30° Celsius. This takes between 18-24 days until it reaches 11% moisture.
