Christmas Brews – Week #3
Available until Wednesday 24th December 

Farm Management
The first thing to know about Nolberto is that he is an expert in holistic and regenerative farming, and he manages his farm entirely organically- carefully decomposing farm outputs to break down the micro-nutrients to return to the soils, and only rarely having to purchase a store-made organic input to keep his trees healthy. Nolberto manages a variety of coffee varieties on his farm, including 10,000 caturra, 4,000 gesha, 1,200 tabi, and around 1,500 trees each of pink bourbon, caturra chiroso, wush wush, maragogype and java.

Nolberto is the third generation in his family to grow coffee, and has been working in coffee for 24 years. He’s been focusing on organic agriculture for the last decade or so, and has been teaching his children to work in the fields so that they may continue with the legacy- the family roasts coffee for themselves and sells roasted coffee in their community. Nolberto has been described as a real genius in organic agriculture- he sprays a fertilizing spray on his trees monthly, mixing Super Magro, worm leachate (the dark liquid that leaks out of a worm composting bin- it’s water released from the cells of decomposing scraps), and micro-organisms- he makes all of these products on his farm, and also sells them to his friends and neighbors so that they can farm organically as well.

His harvest is always super healthy with great production year after year. 90% of his farm is under shade trees- Guam, santafereño, cachingo, and leucaena, which all provide organic material and fix nitrogen back into the soil. As climate change brings more rains to the steep hillsides of El Ruby where he farms, he’s especially glad to have been thinking of the future when he focused on returning shade trees to his farm- erosion hasn’t been as much of a problem this year. Nolberto’s daughter, an avid bird-watcher, has identified over 130 species of birds from their lush farm.

CATURRA CHIROSO
Caturra chiroso first gained recognition among local producers in the municipality of Urrao, in southwest Antioquia- producers began to win competitions using the variety. For years, farmers believed that the chiroso was a natural mutation of caturra, but distinguished by its elongated cherries- hence the chiroso name. Recent genetic studies suggest that chiroso is not part of the bourbon/typica family, but instead genetically linked to Ethiopian landraces. Nolberto has 2,000 caturra chiroso trees, planted 7 years ago- he plans to plant another 2,000 plants this year.

Processing
Nolberto and his son Yefferson work closely together to carefully process each lot- Yefferson has trained as a sample roaster and cupper. For all of the lots, they start by floating cherries to remove the over- and under-ripe cherries. The coffee first begins its fermentation process from within the cherry (natural bacteria enter through the tip where the cherry is picked) during an initial cherry fermentation; the cherries are kept in sealed plastic barrels with valves for off-gassing. Then, it’s de-pulped and left for 60-70 hours in sealed barrels. Careful measurements showed Nolberto and Yefferson that when the barrels are properly sealed, the temperature doesn’t get above 18 C. From there, the coffee is washed twice- first in a full tank of water, and then again with less water. For drying, they dry it first in marquesinas for 2-3 days to avoid mold issues. From there, they take the coffee to dry inside their home in an attic-like space- for special lots like this chiroso, they’re really careful to make sure that the coffee is dried under a roof on the second floor of their home, rotating it once a day every day for 20 – 25 days, depending on the weather conditions.

PRICE TRANSPARENCY
We purchase parchment coffee directly from Nolberto, and pesos are transferred straight to his bank account upon receipt of parchment at our chosen mill. We pay for transport from Tolima  to the mill. We paid 5,000,000 pesos per carga (125 kilos of parchment coffee, this is the unit farmers sell their coffee in) for this lot. For context, here is a link to the daily carga market price: https://www.federaciondecafeteros.org/static/files/precio_cafe.pdf.

Roasted for espresso brewing.