Colombia Monteblanco

Product detailed description

Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia is a third-generation coffee farmer at Finca Monteblanco. His grandfather started growing coffee here several decades ago, and today Rodrigo works to preserve the natural diversity and productivity of the farm.

In 2017, coffees with unique varieties and processes used at Finca Monteblanco won first place in the Yara Championship, a quality competition. The following year, he placed second with another batch from Finca Monteblanco. In 2019, Rodrigo participated in the Roasters United competition, and two of his coffees placed first and third.

Rodrigo's passion for research made this possible. It started in 2016 when he was inspired by winemaking, where he saw that grapes fermented in a cooler environment had more desirable floral and fruity notes. He began his experiments by freezing crushed coffee. The freezer completely stopped fermentation, so the coffee aged very quickly. However, Rodrigo didn't give up because he noticed that the profile had hints of the desired fruity and floral notes, and he knew he was on the right track. Rodrigo continued to experiment with different temperatures and also expanded the scope of his project to include Brix levels (sugar content) and different types of coffee until he found just the right combination.

Cherries are selectively hand-picked and processed on the farm. Workers are trained to harvest cherries at 26 to 30 degrees Brix. After harvesting, the cherry is floated and visually sorted to remove any unripe or damaged cherries. Only the best cherry is crushed and processed using this method. The coffee is placed in GrainPro bags. The sealed bags are placed in an industrial refrigerator for fermentation at 10 to 14 degrees Celsius for 76 hours. Low temperatures slow down microbial activity and allow for slower fermentation. After fermentation, the grain is washed in clean water and placed in direct sunlight on parabolic beds. The grain is dried in direct sunlight for 1 to 2 days and then moved to raised beds in the shade. The grain is often raked to ensure even drying. Drying the grains takes about 23 to 25 days.