Inza is a province located in Southwestern Colombia within the greater Department of Cauca. Like much of Colombia, Cauca is home to some very high altitude farms, many breaching the 2000 masl mark. This particular lot is a blend of coffees from farms ranging 1700 - 2000+ masl, and comes to us from the even smaller region of Pedregal, within Inza. We culled through hundreds of farm samples from the small hamlets in this area including La Palmera, Agua Blanca, San Antonio, and Alto de la Cruz - areas that in our opinion produce some of the finest lots in the region. This lot's cup profile is so sweetness-forward and clean, which is a product of prime cherry selection and processing technique. The coffee is processed in a fairly "traditional" manner for this area, with hand cranked pulpers. The coffee is washed and fermented in the same tank, and then dried out on raised, parabolic beds. Caturra still reigns supreme and we've even found small amounts of Bourbon and Typica mixed in with it. We'll have a fairly consistent supply of coffees from this area coming through the year due to climate change and the constant rainfall/flowering in Colombia.

Honey is definitely a central characteristic we've found in coffees from this area. This particular blended lot is no exception, and has floral honey in the dry aromatics, similar to how honey smells when still intact with the hive itself. This continues into the wet grounds, and is more developed in deeper roasts with a note of butterscotch candy wafting up in the steam. Sweet fruit is exposed on the break with black cherry, plum, and golden raisin. The cup profile is very much in line with the developed sugars found in the aromatics. It has a candy-like sweetness, with caramel, and of course lots of honey. Fruit notes are also prevalent, and raisin, currant, blackberry, and fresh peach only names a few of them. This list will lengthen as the temperature of the cup begins to dip. This coffee has a very juicy body and mouthfeel, along with a lactic, creamy finish. This is the type of profile that bodes well as both a cup of coffee and also as a single origin espresso.

"White Water" is a great name for this coffee from "Agua Blanca". So lively and with a refreshing element that is unique to this blend. This village within Pedregal is inhabited by about as many people as bags of coffee represented by this lot (a whopping 42!), and quite a few of them are named "Penna". This is a name that has become synonymous with great coffee. Walter, Miguel Angel, Juvenal, and several others, more often than not produce the top scoring lots that come through our cupping lab. We'll often set aside one from each to offer as a single producer microlot. The other top lots they send wind up being bulked together with other great coffees submitted from neighboring farms in the area in order to provide a wider audience with one, really nice coffee from Agua Blanca. Altitudes for these farms ranges from 1700 - 2100 masl and are comprised of mainly Caturra, with a little Bourbon and Typica mixed in. These farmers do all the picking and processing of their coffee themselves, which definitely lends to their ability to manage quality control of the green coffee leaving their farms. They manually depulp their fruit on hand-crank machines, ferment in tiled tanks, wash thoroughly, and then dry their coffee gently on covered, raised beds. While this is part of our final shipment of Pedregal coffees for the season, we expect to once again have this coffee back in stock with some regularity starting late Spring.

Agua Blanca is equipped with brilliant aromatics, well rounded mouthfeel, heavy sweetness, and elegant acidity. The dry grounds of light roasts are perfumed with dried apricot, cane sugar, and honey. Our Full City roast shows a hint of marshmallow as well as a dark cacao. This coffee has a layered sweetness from start to finish. This is expressed in the wet grounds as light caramel, butterscotch, and simple syrup. There's also a note of raw almond that verges on marzipan. The flavors of Agua Blanca are deep, and well engrained in the cup profile across the roast spectrum. Our City+ roast has a nice fruited profile that is juicy, with asian pear, passion fruit, and a hint of guava. There's apple as well that vacillates between the tart aspects of green apples and the up-front sweetness of red - like what you find in a Honey Crisp apple. This is a coffee that really opens up as it cools. The fruits transform from tropical, to green grape, to citrus, to...the list grows and becomes more complex the longer you have this coffee in your mouth. Roasting into the realm of Full City brings about a citrus quality that is zest in flavor and pulpy in mouthfeel. It's equal parts kumquat and fresh squeezed orange juice. At City/City+ roast levels, this coffee is an excellent drinking coffee, but the complex profile stands up to both light and darker roasts (but we'd stay away from second crack). The dark roasts make an amazing single origin espresso, and a wonderful blending component.

Here we have yet another microlot offering from the Huila region of Colombia. Much of this year's Colombian coffees have come from this Department located around the volcano region in the southwestern part of the country. The elevation in combination with nutrient rich soil makes for prime coffee growing conditions. This particular lot comes from a small producer farm operated by Alipio Zuniga. The farm is a mere 4 hectares and this 9 bag lot represents his final harvest for the season. Processing is "traditional" in that a manual depulper is utilized to remove the coffee cherry, and then fermentation and washing is handled in the same tank. Finally, it's laid out to dry on parabolic beds. These are our final lots of Colombia coffees for the season, and we're already starting to look forward to harvest later in the year.

The dry grounds have a honey scent to them, that is accented by clove, black walnut and Medjool dates. If you've been following the Colombian coffees we've been listing, you'll know that the sweetness is expounded upon when adding hot water. Vanilla caramels and a culmination of light brown sugar and butter come up off the wet crust. Slightly darker roasts bring about a floral aspect along with toasted sugar and plum. This coffee is so sweet at both lighter and darker roasts. The cup is juicy, with a "craisin" (dried, sweetened cranberries) tartness, as well as green apple, honey, and a note of raw pine nut. The cooling cup brings about the flavor of stewed fruits - so sweet, like the juice from canned peaches. Dark roasts bolster the juiciness of this coffee and bring on characteristics of complex sugar browning. The finish is like fine cocoa powder, with a slightly drying aspect, but not an unpleasant one. Roasting this coffee to Full City, or maybe even to the front edge of Full City+, would make a really nice SO espresso.

This coffee from Fredy Diaz comes to us from the Municipality of Bruselas, located within the greater Department of Huila. A good deal of the Huila coffees we're bringing in this year dot the mountainous hillside up and around the Canton, or "County" of Pitalito. This area is ripe with small holder farmers who use traditional wet mill processing. Fredy's farm sits at about 1700 meters, and is a whopping 3 hectares. Definitely small scale production, and we're glad we were able to separate the 8 bags from his last crop and offer them as a microlot. It's one of the better lots from this final container of Colombias, and already has us longing for next season!

This lot from Fredy Diaz has a defining characteristic of confectionary sweetness all the way through. The dry grounds smell like Turkish pastries, with a smattering of honey and pistachios. Full City roasts have an apple wood sweetness, and a note of beeswax. Water brings about a smell of dried flowers and brown sugar, as well as vanilla extract. Dark roasts are so sweet as well and have a touch of melting baker's chocolate and butter. Thankfully, the cup matches such an aromatic pedigree. Light roasts have the flavor and silkiness of raw honey. A note of black tea sits atop a fruited profile of apple, pear, and ripe peach. Taking the roast toward Full City will bring about flavors of green grape and blackberry, as well as a sweetness of chocolate milk. The finish is like fine cocoa with a layer of toasted nut underneath. This coffee also makes an absolutely amazing SO espresso. The profile is heavy with chocolate and with a hint of tart blackberry. Creamy and sweet - how espresso should be.

We are winding through the remainder of our Colombian lots for the season. We've had a great year, and these last small holder lots from Huila are a testament to that. Humberto Calderon farms just 2 hectares in the Salado Blanco region of Huila. His farm is perched high above the town of Los Pinos at 1850 masl and is planted with a mix of Caturra and Castillo varietals. This lot is predominantly Caturra. Humberto picks his own cherry himself and with his family. His process is manual using a hand crank depulping device to remove the coffee beans from their cherry skins. After approximately 18 hours of fermentation in tiled tanks the beans are washed in the same tanks before drying on raised parabolic beds.

Humberto Calderon is a balanced coffee; mild with subtle yet crisp acidity, good sweetness, and excellent mouthfeel. Toasted sugar, toasted almond, and sweet pastry dough lace the aromatics of the dry fragrance. The crust has a succulent sweetness like huckleberry pie, and juicy stone fruits. Raisin and dark fruit notes appear in the break along with a sweet butterscotch note. Refreshingly crisp red apple leaps out of the cup profile of the city roast when warm, quickly transforming into chocolate syrup that lingers through the aftertaste. As this coffee cools pie crust notes and raw honey appear, making this balanced coffee relatively complex. A more developed roast shows darker fruits like raisin and black cherry. The mouthfeel is reminiscent of stout, and undeniably heavy. The profile of Humberto Calderon is in now way "extreme", but rather, for folks who are fans of subtlety. And with a little patience this coffees really shows its beauty as it gets to cooler temperatures. Overall, Humberto Calderon is a delicate and delicious cup of coffee, that will also make quite a nice shot of single origin espresso as well.