Tropical, juicy, and bursting with freshness. That’s Colombia Los Patios from the Slovak roaster KAFFA, which showcases what the Castillo variety can do when combined with precisely controlled fermentation. The flavor profile blends sweet guava and exotic mangosteen with herbal lemongrass, fresh mint, and juicy lime. The result is a distinctly fruity, clean, and refreshing profile that will particularly delight lovers of unconventional coffees and allows all its layers to shine through when brewed with a filter.
The coffee comes from the area around the city of La Plata in Colombia’s Huila region, one of the country’s most important coffee-growing areas. It is produced by a cooperative of smallholder farmers who grow coffee trees on family farms at elevations ranging from 1, 700 to 2,000 meters. Harvesting takes place by hand and selectively during May and June. The coffee cherries are then sent to the Los Patios processing station in the nearby village of Gigante, where a team combines the individual micro-lots into a single lot and processes them using their own fermentation methods. The coffee consists exclusively of the Castillo variety.
It is the processing method known as Solsticio that gives this coffee its unmistakable character. First, the whole cherries undergo aerobic fermentation for at least 12 hours; they are then pulped and transported to the station. At the same time, a separately fermented “Fruit Juice” culture is created, which is subsequently added to the de-pulped coffee. Further fermentation continues for 5 hours aerobically and 12 hours anaerobically in a closed environment. Finally, the coffee is dried for 12 to 16 days on raised beds in a covered greenhouse until it reaches a final moisture content of 10–11%.
- Estate: Los Patios (Gigante, Huila)
- Elevation: 1,700–2,000 m above sea level