SANTA ELENA

Over the years we developed a friendship with Samuel and Paula, who produce beautiful coffees in the Antioquia region of Colombia. Samuel is a dentistry professor and a farmer who applies a lot of the scientific knowledge he has to coffee producing. Year after year he sends us some of the cleanest and most exciting naturals we have tasted. The farm is in Ciudad Bolivar, a very traditional and well-known coffee town in the heart of Antioquia’s coffee mountains in the southwest part of the department. The town is known for its coffee producing history, with a lively town square centered on the activities of the local coffee businesses.

Santa Elena grows mostly Caturra but has some new varietals starting to mature, including Geisha, Bourbon, and Typica. The property experiences big changes in temperature from day to night, as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit, and the land is very steep. The farm has a very developed system for scoring the had picked cherries and paying premiums to pickers for selective harvesting.

Samuel & Paula have developed a state-of-the-art processing facility with an ecological depulper to use less water and prevent contamination, very clean and organized fermentation tanks, and a solar dryer made of glass over a metallic structure. After the picking, cherries are floated to remove defects and then brought to the solar dryer with raised beds. Once on the raised beds, the coffee is kept in thin layers and turned every two hours to guarantee an even drying process and avoid any defects or problems from excess moisture. The dryer also controls moisture and temperature automatically and keeps the drying process even day and night. The drying process takes 20 to 25 days.

Recommended Brewing Methods:

• Blueberry muffin
• Vanilla gelato
• 60% dark chocolate