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

Beto has been a coffee grower since he was 13 years old (when he left school), planting coffees in a plot that his mother let him manage- from there, he purchased more trees, and slowly- parcel by parcel- he was able to purchase a farm from his uncle. Beto has worked hard to learn coffee production step by step, and he has had great success. In 2015, Beto chose to participate in the Yara Championship of Huila, where his coffee won 2nd place. From there, he realized that he liked focusing on coffee quality and eventually joined the Guacharos group about 4 years ago which is how we began to be exposed to his coffee.

Beto recently sold one of his plots (Buenos Aires- viejo) to his uncle, but he kept a 1.5 ha plot. 5 years ago, he bought another 4 hectare plot and also named it Finca Buenos Aires- let’s call that nuevo! The new plot stands around 1550 masl, and Beto has planted pink bourbon, bourbon sidra, papayo ombligón, F6, Catigua MG2, and 1 ha of red caturra. He has 400 cachingo trees planted throughout the plot, as well as orange and lemon trees- last summer’s brutal heat emphasized to Beto the importance of shade trees to protect the soils and coffee trees and moderate the sun’s heat- the cachingo also sheds leaves that are rich in organic matter. The remaining 1.5 ha plot is in the township of Diamante at 1600 masl, and he also has ombligón trees planted there.

Looking ahead, Beto is hoping to purchase another 2 hectare plot of land to plant coffee. It’s at 1750 masl, and he has the land identified- but he just needs to figure out the financing. He’s hoping to plant half a hectare of sidra, half a hectare of chiroso, and a hectare of laurina- and maybe wush wush! Beto takes a lot of pride in having done well at coffee competitions, and increasingly being globally recognized for his hard work.

PROCESSING
To process, Beto starts with ripe cherries, floats then carefully sorts by hand. From there, the cherries begin their fermentation process (kept intact, in bags, in drums) for 18-20 hours.  The cherries are then de-pulped and returned to sealed bags for another 48- 50 hours. To wash, Beto connects hot water to a coffee washing machine designed for fermented coffee, achieving a kind of thermal shock (Beto says that the thermal shock seals the seed, keeping favourable fermentation flavours locked inside.). The coffee then dries under shade in an upper level canopy dryer.

PRICING TRANSPARENCY
We purchase parchment coffee directly from the association, and transfer pesos straight to their bank account upon receipt of parchment at our chosen mill. We pay for transport from Bruselas to the mill. We paid 3,800,000 pesos per carga to Beto for his pink bourbon lot.