Colombia
Oliverio Naranjo

Washed process Caturra

Flavour: melon, apricot, crunchy red apple acidity

Body: Acidity:

This coffee comes from Oliverio Naranjo’s farm Finca El Cedral in Los Alpes, Tolima, Colombia.

We’ve been enjoying seeing more and more amazing quality coffees coming out of the Tolima region of Colombia.

Tolima's always had great promise: the combination of climate and altitude were right for high quality, and it's bordered by powerhouse coffee-growing regions like Huila and Cauca.

Until recently this was hampered by FARC guerrillas who were based in Planadas, making it difficult to work with farmers and complicating the export of coffee of crops. The Colombian government signed a peace treaty with the rebels in November last year, which we're hoping allows the region's farmers to trade easily with the rest of the world.

It's focused on the region of Antioquia rather than Tolima, but the New York Times recently had a photo essay about travel in Colombia's coffee belt that shows how beautiful the countryside is, and also touches on the FARC peace deal.

What does acidity mean?

If you think of Colombian coffee as rich and bold, Oliverio Naranjo's crop will be a change: light bodied, with low acidity and with some delicious fruit notes.

When we talk about acidity, we're talking about flavour and vibrancy that comes from types of acid that occur naturally in foods. The easiest example of this is biting into a green apple. This coffee has a red apple acidity which refers to malic acid that's in apple and rhubarb.

In others coffees you might taste citric acids (similar to limes, oranges and lemons), tartaric acids (like green grapes), or acetic acids (by itself a vinegary flavour, but in small amounts it's more like wine).

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: Oliverio Naranjo
Country: Colombia
Region: Los Alpes, Planadas, Tolima
Altitude: 1700m above sea level
Varietals: Caturra
Process: washed
Body: Light
Acidity: Low
Tasting notes: Melon, apricot, crunchy red apple acidity
Roast style: Omni (filter + espresso)

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 Tolima region of Colombia

The word ‘Tolima’ comes from the local indigenous language and means a “river of snow or cloud”.

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.