Nariño

What is a 'field blend'

Our new favourite coffee supplier working in Colombia, Apex is really awesome.  When they buy from a farmer, they always buy all of the coffee they produce so that they aren't left with any extra unsold coffee at the end of season.  If there are some coffees from several different that they score 2-3 points less (somewhere in the range of 85-87) than their standard, they will take those coffees and blend them together.  A lot of other suppliers would just leave the farmer with excess coffee, forcing them to find an alternate company to sell it to, or in some cases, just leaving them with coffee that they don't have the resources to sell.  It is for this reason that we are selling one of our first multi-farm lots.  Usually we stick to single farm, single producer lots, but for this kind of quality moral character, we make the exception.

Farms and Processing

The town of Buesaco lies on a ridge high in the Andes mountains of the Nariño department. The name of this blend, Buesaco Jardines, refers to the lush gardens that are present in coffee farms surrounding this area. Geovany started this new project called "Jardines" with his sister Yeny, and his brother Eduardo as a way to pool their smaller day lots into a larger, more manageable lot size. The coffees produced at these farms have incredible complexity and sweetness, which can be attributed to the high elevation and diverse microclimate in this area. Their simple, yet effective processing techniques also make this blend incredibly clean, sweet, and refreshing.

The main varieties included in the Jardines project are Caturra and Colombia. The three siblings work arduously to preserve the quality of their plants. They ensure all weeds are removed manually, and use only organic fertilizer on their farms. These practices help preserve the soil from damage during periods of droughts or prolonged rain.

Yeny Pinchao - Upon harvest, ripe cherries are selected for processing. The cherries are washed and soaked in water to remove floaters. Remaining cherries are depulped and left to ferment in clean tanks for 16 hours before being moved to patios to dry for a period of 10 days under the sun.

Geovany Pinchao - Upon harvest, only the ripest and healthiest cherries at the farm are selected for processing. The processing starts when the cherries are washed and soaked in clean water tanks. After removing all floaters, the cherries are depulped and fermented in clean steel tanks for 18 hours before being washed again and moved to patios to dry with direct sun exposure for approximately 25 days.

Eduardo Trejo - The washed process in Finca El Chirimoyo starts with the manual harvest of ripe cherries. Aprocess of soaking the cherries in water to remove floaters and impurities occur after they arrive at the farm. Cherries that pass this selection are left to ferment for 12 hours in jute bags. The cherries are then depulped before going through a period of anaerobic fermentation in air-tight tanks for 26 hours. Once this process is finished, the coffees are fully washed and sun-dried for 18 days on patios.