Farm: Finca el Porvenir Cultivar: Caturra Producer: Sandra Milena Mora & Hector Coy Origin: Palestina, Huila, CO Altitude: 1750 - 1850masl Process: 36 - 48 h wet fermentation, dried on raised beds
The farm El Porvenir is found in the heart of the region Palestina in southern Huila, Colombia. The farm is run by Sandra Milena Mora and her husband Hector and they bought it back in 2006. They own 12 hectares but only produce coffee on 5 of them leaving the rest as a natural reserve. On the 5 hectares they have around 20.000 caturra trees, 4000 Tabi trees and 300 young Pink Bourbon trees. Out of the 18.000 Caturra trees they found 2 that are resistant to leaf rust. The past 3 years they have taken seeds from these 2 trees and now they have around 3000 new resistant Caturra trees on the farm. They haven’t yet come up with a name for the new variety but at the moment they call it Caturra Mejorado.
The coffee is organically grown with no chemical fertilisers or pesticides. Sandra believes in the organic practises and is convinced that both the coffee and the surrounding natural forest and wild life benefit hugely from this. They make their own organic fertiliser that they apply once per year.
The coffee is picked and sorted by hand and it takes about a month to pick the whole farm and then they start over again. The first small picking is in August but the main harvest is between late September to late November/early December. After the cherries have been processed the coffee is fermented for 36-48 hours before being washed carefully. The Tabi requires a longer fermentation time and normally takes 48 hours whereas the Caturra only needs 36 hours. The coffee is pre-dried on African beds for 5 days and then moved to the newly built shade house where it finish drying for another 20 days depending on weather.
Big investments and lots of hard work has been put into the farm the last few years resulting in an excellent and smooth running operation. Their coffee is tasting incredible and this is an obvious result of their attention to detail. We have been buying their whole production the last couple of years and will continue to do so. Sandra and Hector have not only proven to be great coffee producers but they’ve also become great friends over the years. Every time we go they invite us to their home, cook amazing food and we always have the best time together. We are so excited to be able to showcase their coffees.
