Huila, a department located in the southwestern region of Colombia, is widely known and recognized for the echelon of quality for the coffees that are produced in the region. The department's diverse geography and varying altitudes, ranging from 1,200 to 1,850 meters above sea level, create a wide range of microclimates. This variation in climate and altitude contributes to the unique flavor profiles that are found in coffees produced in Huila.

This is our first year sourcing and working in collaboration with Finca El Faro. Finca El Faro produces coffee on its own farm and also directly collaborates and sources coffee from over 150 independent smallholder coffee growers located around Huila. This naturally produced lot was created by blending specific caturra lots produced at Finca El Faro along with other naturally produced caturra lots sourced from several other small, independent, neighboring farms in Palermo, Huila. The objective with this process is to identify key flavor components that make up a specific profile style and from there the coffees are then blended through a series of cuppings in order to achieve a target profile. After this process and a profile has been created and approved, the coffee is transported to El Faro’s mill for dry milling and separated for export.

Not only was this one of the tastiest natural lots that we had the privilege of tasting this year from Colombia, but we were also completely surprised in blind cuppings that it wasn’t an experimental lot. When El Faro is not producing and selling coffee from their own farm, they support other neighboring smallholder farmers by providing them milling & technical services with their coffees along with technical assistance to help enhance quality to broaden market opportunities for their neighbors by opening sales channels to international specialty buyers.

Processing

Since the drying process is carried out at each individual farm, the drying times used for post harvest drying varies from 15 to 25 days on average and generally depends on the micro climates and drying infrastructure at each farm. Some farms may rely on sun patios to dry their coffees where others might utilize solar drying on raised beds.