2022 Good Food Awards Winner!
This coffee is part of the staple harvest in El Paraiso. Its Caturra & Java varieties provide a good yield and its washed process results in a clean, sweet cup. It is not a rare variety, nor an exotic process. It's the bread & butter harvest for a farmer like Ernedis Rodriguez, and provides most of the income coming into the farm.
What makes this coffee exemplary is the dedication to excellence at every step of the farming process. Ernedis has installed an eco washer, drastically reducing water consumption and labor hours. Those savings become reinvestments on his farm, increasing quality and consistency along the way. This also allowed Ernedis to start composting cascara and other byproducts to reintegrate into his farm (some call this biodynamic or regenerative agriculture).
Ernedis's staple lot cups well above standard for a coffee like this, and competes in quality with more exotic Pink Bourbon varieties across Huila. It's this kind of work that we are proud to associate with, and it is quite deserving of this Good Food Award.
Read the full list of Good Food Award winners here.
Coffee flavor profile:
Fruit punch, citrus, cherry, red stonefruits, skittles, vanilla, juicy, clean, vibrant.
How we sourced it:
In the face of the pandemic, our trader The Coffee Quest along with The Bean Project organized a competition in Huila. The goal of this competition was to generate some guaranteed income for farmers, and increase awareness of the amazing work being done in this community. We purchased the #3 placing coffee, a Caturra from Finca El Paraiso, run by producer Ernedis Rodriguez. Dubbed the Huila Magico competition, the coffee we purchased was truly magical!
This year, we were given the opportunity to sample Ernedis's full harvest. We enjoyed all of it, and chose his Lot #4 to be our first large purchase of 2021. This lot is comprised of Caturra and Java varietals, and offers a stunning sweetness and clarity of cup that has become part of Ernedis's signature on his coffee. Finca El Paraiso works about 7 hectares (17 acres) of coffee lands on very steep hillsides.
Coffee Quest has been working with Ernedis since 2016, and that relationship-- like many that H+S seeks to be involved with-- has created a positive cycle in which the coffee quality and premiums paid rise year over year. A high premium allows reinvestment into the farm, resulting in great quality harvests, which returns a higher premium. Some recent reinvestment includes an auto-sorting wet mill that drastically increases sorting efficiency, and an eco-washer that uses a fraction of the water normally used for washing.
How we roast it:
This is a dense bean, and as such, fits our favorite fast-and-hot profile to maximize sweetness and intensity. It is roasted to present a full host of tropical fruit sweetness while maintaining it's signature clean cup. A bit of body in the form of vanilla keeps this roast balanced.
How we drink it:
Like most of our Colombian offerings, this coffee plays well across all brewing methods.
OriginFarm: Finca El Paraiso |
ProcessWashed |
VarietalCaturra, Java |
Trade partner |