Colombia
Buenos Aires

Washed process Caturra, Castillo, San Bernado

Flavour: apple, white peach, brown sugar

Body: Acidity:

Don’t be thrown off by the fact this farm’s name is also the capital of Argentina — this coffee comes to you from the Huila department of Colombia.

Coffee from Huila is among the most interesting to come out of Colombia. The incredibly varied geography and microclimates leads to diverse and complex flavours even between farms in the same region.

Colombia is also unusual in the coffee world for having two alternating harvest seasons each year: the main harvest and a smaller mitaca harvest. Within this pattern the geography can mean farms 100km apart may be in completely different harvest patterns.

UK cafe and roaster Workshop have written about visiting Huila last year.

The farmer

Alberto (or Beto) Narvaez is a producer from Bruselas in Huila, working with a cooperative in Bruselas called Andino (Andes).

Beto has been working on with coffee since he was a teenager, when he finished school he went onto picking and working on other peoples farms. He saved his money and was later able to buy his own lot.

Beto also grows guavas, bananas and passionfruit on the farm, which is shaded by Guamo and Jacaranda trees.

Castillo

You’ll notice a different varietal included in the crop from this farm: Castillo. This is a more disease-resistant and higher-producing coffee plant created as a hybrid of Caturra and Timor Hybrid varietals, but which remains similar enough to Caturra to have a the same flavour profile.

Sourcing and ingredients

100% Caturra, Castillo, and San Bernado coffee beans, provided by Caravela and roasted by us on Gadigal land / Sydney.

Country grade: Unknown ?

Packaging

Bag: ABA Certified home compostable
Label: Recyclable
Valve (on bags larger than 250g): General waste
Coffee ordered online is shipped in a recyclable cardboard box

Brewing this coffee

We recommend brewing this coffee 15–49 days post-roast. If pre-ground, brew as soon as possible. Our advice on storing coffee.

1:3
dose:yield
ratio

To brew on espresso, we recommend using 20g of beans (dose) to get 60g of espresso out (yield), during 24-28 seconds.

g dose

g yield

View the how to brew espresso (single origin) guide.

1:16.7
beans:water
ratio

To brew in infusion/fed brewers (V60, Chemex) use a ratio of 1:16.7 ratio of beans:water.

g beans

g water

View full recipes and videos in our brewguides

1:14.3
beans:water
ratio

To brew in immersion brewers (plunger, AeroPress, Kalita, batch brewer) we recommend using a 1:14.3 ratio of beans:water

g beans

g water

View full recipes and videos in our brewguides

1:12
beans:water
ratio

To brew as cold brew we recommend using a 1:12 ratio of beans:water

g beans

g water

View full recipes and videos in our brewguides

Producer: Beto Narvaez
Country: Colombia
Region: Pitalito, Huila
Altitude: 1700m above sea level
Varietals: Caturra, Castillo, and San Bernado
Process: washed
Harvested: November 2014
Body: Medium
Acidity: Balanced
Tasting notes: Apple, white peach, brown sugar
Roast style: Omni (filter + espresso)

Varietals

Castillo varietal

Castillo is named after the researcher Jamie Castillo, who helped develop the varietal in 2005 by Cenicafe, Colombia’s coffee research centre

Caturra varietal

Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon that was originally discovered in Brazil in 1937, considered to be the first naturally occurring mutation ever discovered.

The location

Coffee from Colombia

Colombia is one of the largest coffee producers in the world and benefits greatly from having one of the most unique and complex set of micro-climates of all coffee producing nations.

The Huila region of Colombia

This region boasts the perfect combination of high quality soil and geography and is quickly becoming one of the largest coffee producing regions in Colombia. One of the best regarded regions for high quality, fruit driven coffee.

Farm processes

Washed process

Machines are used to remove the flesh from the coffee cherry before being fermented in water, washed again, and finally sun dried. This process tends to result in more distinct, cleaner flavours.