Colombia
Guiverney Narvaez

Washed process Caturra

Flavour: honey, white peach, red apple

Body: Acidity:

We’re back in Colombia for this delivery, returning to the farm El Altico near the village of Las Ventas in the hills of the Cauca region.

We shared a previous harvest of Guiverney’s coffee back in 2016.

Guiverney Narvaez himself. Photo: Caravela Coffee

Guiverney inherited El Altico from his father, a hard-working coffee farmer who inspired Guiverney to continue his work.

With hard work, sacrifice and some trial and error, Guiverney has successfully expanded his coffee plantation and improved the quality of the crop. Now the farm is made up of over 5,000 healthy Caturra trees.

Our sourcing partner in Colombia, Caravela, helps farmers like Guiverney through access to training, research, and ongoing support through their Programa de Educación a Caficultores (PECA) program.

With help from PECA and his own continual focus on improvement, Guiverney believes he can reach more micolot (ML) grades and eventually have a fixed contract to produce specialty coffee.

El Niño droughts

Like much of Colombia, droughts caused by the El Niño cycle greatly affected his harvest last year. He had a much smaller crop of high-quality coffee which could be sold at higher prices to specialty roasters like Sample – the lot which we're sharing is the only specialty-grade from the harvest.

Worse still, the current transition to La Niña brings the risk of torrential rain and floods for much of Colombia’s coffee growers.

What’s a Colombian coffee?

We’ve been sharing the diversity of coffees from Colombia with you as part of Brew Crew. It’s a country unlike any other: home to such a wide range of microclimates that it’s hard to define what a “Colombian” coffee should taste like. If you associate Colombia with rich chocolate flavours, it’s time to reconsider.

This coffee is a great example of that diversity: it’s got a lighter body, great complexity and bursting with sweetness. Depending how you’re brewing, these lighter coffees may benefit from slightly more fine grind settings, so it’s worth experimenting with grind if you’re not happy.

You can also see our previous Colombian coffees listed on this page, along with their tasting notes.

If you’d like a hand getting the flavour of this coffee right, we’ll be posting some brew notes on the website with this coffee later this week.

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: Guiverney Narvaez
Country: Colombia
Region: Inza, Cauca
Altitude: 1700m above sea level
Variety: Caturra
Process: washed
Harvested: November 2016
Importer: Caravela
Body: Medium
Acidity: Balanced
Tasting notes: Honey, white peach, red apple
Roast style: Omni (filter + espresso)

Variety

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 Cauca region of Colombia

Attractive growing conditions afforded by its altitude, proximity to the equator and the protection afforded by surrounding mountains, enabling a stable microclimate year round. Cauca is a region also known for its World Heritage listed national parks, wildlife, and life-giving water sources

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.