ROAST | LIGHT MEDIUM

ORIGIN | LA PLATA, HUILA, COLOMBIA

NOTES | MIXED BERRIES, TROPICAL FRUITS, RED SANGRIA

 If you've been around here for any length of time, you know we love to celebrate the spirit of competition. Our company was built on that very foundation, and we continue to invest a great deal of our time, energy, and resources into both national and international barista competitors. Enter: Diego Campos. Diego gives us A LOT to celebrate! He is the current 2021 World Barista Champion, and he's also the producer of this stunning anaerobic lot from his family's farm in La Plata, Huila. "Barista champion" and "coffee farmer" don't often end up on the same e-mail signature; in fact, Diego is the first Colombian to win the World Barista Championship - and only the second to make semi-finals - in its twenty-one year history.

We don't want to brag or anything, but we knew Diego before he added "world barista champion" to his LinkedIn profile. He and one of our owners, Kyle, first met when they both competed in WBC in Seoul in 2017, and Kyle even had the opportunity to visit Diego's father-in-law's reknown farm, Finca Tamina, back in 2019. This particular lot was contracted for us before Diego took home the WBC title in Milan last year - Kyle had been pestering him to buy one of his anaerobic naturals after seeing them on social media earlier that same year. For this lot, the cherries were fermented without oxygen for 100 hours before being placed on raised drying beds for 15 days. 

Diego's careful attention to the craft of fermentation and processing methods has resulted in a cup of coffee that transports us straight to the beaches of Playa Blanca! This absolute fruit bomb has notes of mixed berries, tropical fruits, and red sangria. It's delightfully sweet and boozy without being cloying, just like that batched sangria we could sip on the beach all day. With it we raise our glasses and say, Cheers!, to Diego Campos. May we always celebrate more wins (both on and off the competition stage) for producers, farmers, and their families. 

Producers or Washing Station | Diego Campos, Campos Roa

Farm | El Diamente

Process | anaerobic natural

Variety | castillo / colombia

Elevation | 1950 masl

 ROAST | LIGHT 

ORIGIN | ALGECIRAS, HUILA, COLOMBIA

NOTES | LIGHT FLORALS, CANDIED CITRUS, WHITE PEACH, TROPICAL

Nestled among the Andes mountains, Finca El Vergel is a beautiful family farm that's been producing coffee for over thirty years. Originally cultivated by his father, Libardo Rozo, the farm is now run by Robinson Rozo - a young and dedicated producer who is quickly becoming something of a Gesha specialist in Colombia. As is often the case with family farms in Colombia, each of Libardo's children inherited a portion of the land (2.25 hectares, to be exact!) on which they could choose their own coffee varieties to cultivate and manage. Robinson, of course, chose Gesha. 

Robinson learned how to process coffees at a very young age, and he owes his passion for the craft to his father. Libardo, however, wasn't very interested in producing specialty coffees at El Vergel. Robinson became immersed in the world of specialty coffee while learning to cup at a local technical school named El Sena, and he walked away from that experience with a particular interest in the Gesha variety.

For this naturally processed lot from Robinson's Gesha crop, the cherries are first floated while immature beans are removed. The cherries are then fermented in GrainPro bags for 36 hours before being laid out to dry in the marquesina for 20-30 days. 

The resultant cup is one that reminds us of everything we love about Gesha. It has a delicate florality about it, with notes of candied citrus, white peaches, and all things tropical. After a few sips, it's easy to understand Robinson's decision to jump from managing Caturra plants with his dad to planting his very own Gesha trees! We are so excited to showcase his hard work with you and look forward to learning more from this Gesha specialist through continued collaboration.

ROAST | LIGHT 

ORIGIN | TOLIMA, COLOMBIA

NOTES | MANGO, BLACK GRAPE, ORANGE FRUIT PUNCH, COCOA NIB

For brothers Shady and Elias Bayter, farming and family have always gone hand in hand. They grew up watching and learning from their parents, who first grew avocados. In 2012, the brothers turned their eyes to coffee and never looked back. Fast forward to today: Shady and Elias manage a beautiful farm called El Vergel, which sits on the slope of an inactive volcano in the Tolima department of Colombia. It is here, at the highest part of the estate, that you'll find the 500 or so plants that are producing this very special yellow Gesha. 

This varietal is admittedly one of the most demanding to be produced at El Vergel. In addition to only harvesting from those trees that produced the distinctive yellow coffee cherries, this varietal was planted based on the soil and climate conditions specifically to promote an extended growth of the cherries, which then promotes higher brix content. After harvesting, these cherries were processed using an extended anaerobic fermentation method for 52 hours before being slowly and intermittently dried in the sun. In fact, fermentation plays a huge role in every lot coming out of El Vergel - Elias, who is the Director of Processing, is obsessed (in a good way!) with experimenting with fermentation's effects on coffee flavor profiles. As a result, the coffees coming out of El Vergel are well known for having flavor profiles that are really driven by these incredible, and often experimental, fermentation methods. 

That brings us to the cup that you are (hopefully) going to taste with us! This coffee is remarkably fruity, especially for a Gesha. Think: mangoes, black grapes, and citrus. Thanks to that aforementioned concentration on processing, it tastes as though it was grown at a much higher elevation than the relatively low 1460 masl mark where El Vergel resides. When cupping this coffee, we couldn't help but think of orange fruit punch! It is a delightful coffee to enjoy during these warm summer months, and with it we say CHEERS! to the brothers Bayter, for their incessant dedication to excellence throughout each phase of farming, harvesting, and processing.