Colombia Finca Monteblanco Citric Co-ferment Nº 272

Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia is a third generation farmer from Finca Monteblanco in the Acevedo sub-region of Huila in Colombia. Today, Rodrigo works to preserve the natural diversity and productivity of the farm that his grandfather started many decades ago. The superb micro-climate and high altitude of Finca Monteblanco makes for the ideal conditions to cultivate some of coffee’s highest quality and most prized varieties - focusing on Caturra, Geisha, Pink Bourbon and Pacamara. Monteblanco achieved 1st place at the Yara Coffee Championship 2017 and second place the following year. As well as first and third place in the Roasters Union Competition.

In 2016 Rodrigo took inspiration from wine making, in which they use cooler environments to ferment the grapes to accentuate the floral and fruity tones. After much time experimenting with good and bad results, he knew he was on the right track using different temperatures and incorporating Brix degrees (which measures the dissolved sugar contents of a liquid) and different coffee varieties until he found exactly the right combination.

Coffee cherry is meticulously checked for Brix degrees (indicating sweetness) and pH and monitored throughout the wet fermentation with the citrus fruit. There are many coffees like this coming into the speciality coffee market in the UK and they pose an interesting question about what coffee can be. Co-fermented coffees can really transform the flavour of the coffee into being something quite unlike what we know as coffee.