Christmas Brews – Week #1
Available until Wednesday 10th December 

Though we first encountered Jhoan close to a decade ago cupping in a SENA lab, this is only our fourth purchase from Jhoan and his family’s farm Las Flores. We were (re)introduced to him through our long-term friends and partners the Lassos of the El Diviso farm- the Lassos and the Vergaras have shared processing knowledge, tips and tricks, and even share drying and processing infrastructure when both their farms find themselves at capacity.

Jhoan’s parents migrated from Cundinamarca to Huila in the early 90s- they came after an uncle had found success in Huila. Though Huila was a new part of the country for the family, coffee farming was not- Jhoan’s grandparents were coffee producers in the north. The family started with about 15 hectares in total, but they started with just 2 ha in coffee- and grew from there to  plant up  to 90,000  trees- almost entirely caturra. For the first 15 years or so, the family focused on local markets, and commodity coffees- the specialty coffee industry was still very nascent. In the early 00s, Jhoan’s mother sent a coffee into the Cup of Excellence competition, and though she didn’t win, the family began to focus more on quality, and Jhoan began to learn more about coffee.

At just 15 years old, Jhoan left high school in Pitalito and began to focus on the farm, and on coffee. He began to get curious about coffee- specifically, where it ended up, and who was buying it- and he ended up at the SENA- the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje, or National Training Service- where many coffee producers learn agronomy, cupping, roasting, and basic brewing skills. At the SENA, Jhoan met Nestor Lasso- which will end up being a crucial friendship and partnership (for the families, and for Shared Source!).

Coffee leaf rust- roya– struck the Vergara family farm hard in 2008, and to combat the fungus, they renovated the farm with varieties that were more rust-resistant, higher yielding, and had good cup quality- starting with tabi, and continuing to plant pink bourbon, gesha, caturra chiroso, maracaturra, red bourbon, etc.

JAVA
Java seeds are an Ethiopian landrace, though the name comes from its introduction to the island of Java by the Dutch in the 19th century. The variety is fairly resistant to coffee leaf rust and coffee borer disease, and requires fewer fertilizer inputs than other high-quality varieties (like gesha), which has contributed to its increasing popularity around Colombia.

PROCESSING
For this java lot, the cherries first undergo a submerged fermentation (in cold water) for 12 hours, and then the cherries are left to continue fermenting in an open air environment (oxidation) for another 24 hours.From there, the cherries are de-pulped, and then they undergo an additional 48 hours of anaerobic fermentation in a sealed vessel with a tube for off-gassing. The de-pulped coffee then undergoes an additional 36 hours of fermentation (oxidation) in an open tank. Finally,, the coffee is washed and dried gently in Jhoan’s dehumidifying machine. All of the washed coffees that Jhoan processed this year undergo a thermal shock- meaning that the coffee is washed with water heated to 50°C and then rapidly cooled using cold water for 30 minutes before drying in the dehumidifying machine for 36 hours.

PRICING TRANSPARENCY
We purchased parchment coffee directly from Jhoan, and pesos were transferred straight to his bank account upon receipt of parchment at our chosen mill. We pay for transport from Pitalito to the mill in Cauca. We purchased 950 kg of parchment coffee and paid 4,800,000 pesos per carga for it- a carga is 125 kg of parchment coffee.