Christmas Brews – Week #2
Available until Wednesday 17th December 

Dayana’s farm La Quebrada is one of the highest elevation farms in her small township of Bermejal, and coffee production is a family affair- her parents Edgar Rivadeneira and Mercedes Santacruz also help during the harvest and production period. This is the third year that Dayana has prepared and sold several lots of coffee to the specialty coffee market, and we’re excited to build on our new relationship with her over the years and upcoming harvests. Dayana is the youngest of two children- she’s just 21!- and her older brother Edison works maintaining electrical networks in Nariño.

PROCESSING
Because of the high altitude and cooler temperatures, Dayana has a later harvest than many of her neighbors, and during the harvest she and her family pick cherries every 25 days or so, giving them time to ripen to a dark grape color. She floats the cherries to remove over- and under-ripe cherries, allows a fermentation in cherry form for 24 hours, after which she de-pulps, and leaves the coffee to ferment in an open tank. In her cooler temperatures, it can take up to 3 or 4 days for the coffee to fully ferment. She knows how and when to wash the coffee by using a tool called Fermaestro- a hollow pyramid filled with freshly de-pulped coffee. As the mucilage protecting the seeds ferments and loosens away the seeds, the volume decreases (and the tool tracks the mucilage’s progress to indicate when it’s time to wash the coffee. She washes the parchment once before moving it to a ventilated parabolic dryer.

Parchment is the most stable and well-protected when it’s dried slowly and gently, so she finishes the drying by taking the coffee outside to dry under a protected cover until it reaches the ideal moisture level. Because her farm is often covered by clouds, it can sometimes take between 20 to 30 days to carefully dry her coffee