Colombia El Paraiso

This microlot comes from Jorge Osorio's El Paraiso farm in Iquira, a coffee town in the Huila region of southwestern Colombia. Huila is prized for exactly the conditions this coffee is grown in: rich volcanic ash soil, high altitude and generous rainfall, all of which feed slow and even cherry development. The variety is Variedad Colombia, a Cenicafe-bred cross of Caturra and Timor Hybrid released back in 1980. It was developed for leaf rust resistance and dependable yields, but it holds onto much of the cup quality of its Caturra parent, giving bright acidity, a medium body and clean sweetness.

The processing is where Jorge's care really shows. He and his pickers take only the ripest cherries, then hand sort and float them to pull out anything underripe or low density. The cherries go through a 30 hour submerged fermentation, a controlled step that lets the sugars and acids break down gradually and builds a sweet, bright profile without tipping into anything funky. After fermentation the coffee is pulped, fully washed, and dried slowly in parabolic dryers down to 11 percent moisture. It cups clean and lively, with caramel sweetness, a lift of lime, and dark chocolate sitting underneath.