Colombia Guiverney Narvaez: Sample Coffee Roasters

Colombia
Guiverney Narvaez

We find flavours of 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.

Sourcing and ingredients

100% Caturra 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: Guiverney Narvaez
Country: Colombia
Region: Inza, Cauca
Altitude: 1700m above sea level
Varietals: Caturra
Process: Washed
Harvested: November 2016
Body: Medium
Acidity: Balanced
Tasting notes: Honey, white peach, red apple
Roast style: Omni

Varietals

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 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.