Colombia Caficultores de Nariño

While we may not know the specifics on this Nariño lot, we are familiar with the areas where it was sourced. Most of the coffee was bought from farmers in the Nariño municipalities of La Union, San Lorenzo and San Pedro de Cartago, situated along the high ridges of Colombia's Western Andes, where coffee thrives at elevations upwards of 2000 meters above sea level. Most of the farms are planted in a mix of varieties ranging from Bourbon and Caturra, to disease-resistant hybrids, such as Variedad Colombia and Castillo. Farmers typically process coffee at home using small machinery that can be hand-cranked or run off small gas engines. The coffee is pulped off its outer cherry before fermenting in cement tanks overnight, or longer, during which fermentation breaks down the sticky mucilage layer that is stuck to the seed. All of that is washed away with clean water before drying in covered drying rooms that protect the coffee from passing rains. The coffee looks to be very well-sorted, with almost no physical issues in the green we assessed. More importantly, we found the balanced bittersweet flavors to be a good representation of high grown Nariño coffee that's been processed well.