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.

Learn everything about this coffee:

Ethical, traceable sourcing

This page has all the sourcing information (variety, process, region, story, importer, and more) that our importers share with us, and give us permission to use.

The transparency helps us talk confidently about the quality and background of our product, and it helps you know exactly what you’re buying.

Learn more:
Coffee page transparency legend
Our coffee philosophy
Our business approach

Fresh harvest coffee

We only source and roast coffee from each country’s latest harvest season (so the green coffee is never older than 1 year from the time of picking, processing and packing). This ensures the sensory qualities are always at their peak and unaffected by excessive ageing.

Roasted for espresso and filter (best enjoyed black)

Roast style: omni. Omni roasts are designed to brew and taste great both as espresso and filter. Our omni single origins generally sit on Agtron values in the ~70-60 value range. So, technically, they are somewhere in the lighter side of the medium spectrum.

Designed for espresso and filter brewing. Best enjoyed black.

Learn more:
Our Loring Kestrel S35 roaster
Our roasting style and approach

Best brewed within days 15-49 post-roast

The ‘fresh is best’ saying doesn’t apply to coffee (contrary to popular belief). Waiting before opening and brewing your bag of whole coffee beans helps develop peak flavour and acidity.

But heads up: if you buy pre-ground coffee, brew it as soon as possible.

Learn more:
Our recommended brewing window

Try our custom brewing recipes

Our recipes and ratios are tailored to our coffee sourcing and roasting styles, bringing the best flavour and feel out of each coffee.

For pour over, immersion, and other filter brewing styles, check our brew guides.
For our espresso single origins, we recommend a coffee:yield ratio of 1:3:

Dose: 20g ground coffee
Yield: 60g espresso
Total brew time: ~24-28 seconds

This is just a starting point! We encourage you to experiment, taste, and adjust to find the recipe that you enjoy the most.

Learn more:
Our espresso brew guide (single origin)
Brewing ratio calculator

Packaging and sustainability

Bags: ABA-certified home compostable (AS 5810-2010)
Labels: recyclable
Valves (only on +250g bags): general waste
Box and tape (online orders): recyclable

Learn more:
Our packaging

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

Varieties

Castillo variety

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

Caturra variety

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.