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SWEET PLUMS, CITRUS FRUIT & BROWN SUGAR
If you’ve had coffee from Diego Bermudez/El Paraiso before, words aren’t needed. If you haven’t, you’re in for a treat. One of the most innovative and meticulous producers in Colombia, Diego and the team at El Paraiso are famed for producing standout coffees. This lot is an extended fermentation of the rare Chiroso varietal. I’m a big fan of Chiroso, I find the profile of this varietal to be sweet, thick and heavy, absolutely delightful on filter and espresso, it’s not nuanced and a has a really distinctive cup quality to it.
For this lot, Diego has fermented these beans both aerobically, and anaerobically, as well as controlling the microbial load of the coffee during fermentation. In the cup, we have sweet plums, citrus fruit and brown sugar, but all wrapped in a sweet and heavy body. It’s lovely. Perfect on filter, or go full send on espresso. Cheers, Joel.
Roasted light/medium.
THE BEAN AND PROCESSING
Diego Samuel now 39 years old who was born in Bolivar Cauca, has dedicated the last 13 years of his life to growing coffee and to also gaining a deep understanding and knowledge on the processing and production of high-end specialty coffee that is almost unparalleled in the unique flavour and profiles produced.
As part of a tight knit family Diego works on their farm in Cauca. Together they are involved on the pursuit of continual learning and striving to achieve the next level with their processing. They built their own lab on the farm to firstly understand about cupping and roasting so they could then start to curate their own fermentation protocols for them to begin experimenting with. These experiments and novel approach to coffee have allowed to him to soar and exceed winning several awards from 2015 onwards.
As well as being an accomplished cupped Diego has also achieved the CQI level 2 processing course qualification which allowed him to get a base for seeing how cup profiles could be guided depending on microorganisms, ph and temperature.
The Villa Esperanza - Paraiso farm in El Tambo, Cauca sits at 1700 masl and covers 27 ha of land and is planted with Castillo, Colombia, Caturra and geisha. The farm focuses on technology and the critical processes that and intricate in producing coffee of this mark. From the selection to the meticulous drying which is done in a way to mitigate the changeable climatic conditions allowing them to replicate coffees of such high standards.
1. Picking of ripe coffee cherries (90%) and semi ripe coffee cherries (10%).
2. Cherry washed with sterilised water water to decrease microbial load.
3. First phase of fermentation is aerobic (without water) for 42 hours. Average temperature of 17 degrees celsius.
4. Second phase of fermentation is anaerobic with the cherry (without water) for 72 hours at 19 degrees celsius.
5. Demucilage the coffee in the depulper
6. Controlled drying for 26 hours, with air recirculation at a temperature of 37 degrees celsius and a relative humidity of 3%, until reaching a grain humidity between 10% and 11%.
7. The coffee is packed in Grain pro and it is stabilized for 15 days