COLOMBIA Rodrigo Sanchez, Filter

Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia is a third-generation coffee farmer at Finca Monteblanco. His grandfather began cultivating coffee here several decades ago and today, Rodrigo works to preserve the natural diversity and productivity of the farm. Cherry is selectively handpicked and delivered to the on- site wet mill. Rodrigo selected “Purple Caturra” for this lot, a Caturra variety with different leaves and cherry color than Red Caturra. When measured on Brix sugar content meters, “purple” Caturra has higher Brix content than typical Red Caturra. Cherry is floated to remove any under or over-ripe coffee. Before processing cherry, Rodrigo combines a mixture of lactobacillus, saccharomyses and cerevisiae bacteria for a total of 10 different yeasts to cherry to promote fermentation. Rodrigo also added cholupa, a sour fruit often used to make a form of lemonade, and dried coconut to this mixture to add additional flavor. Finally, he adds a sugar-rich mixture to feed fermentation, such as molasses, panela or granulated sugar. The mixture is sealed and fermented for 8 days. After 8 days, cherry is added to the fruit mixture and fermented for 180 hours (7.5 days). Following fermentation, coffee is washed in clean water and laid in parabolic beds to dry. Cherry is raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 25 to 30 days for cherry to dry.