This is the third harvest we’ve purchased from Elias Roa Parra’s Finca Tamana. His work with Tim Wendelboe is an outstanding model of the quality that occurs with improvements focused on fundamentals. Elias and Tim focus on crop nutrition, picking, harvesting, pulping, fermentation, and drying controls. Crop nutrition is the foundation of efficiency for farmers. Removing defects during picking increases the overall quality of the final lot. Defects can originate at the plant and contribute to loss of yield and diminished quality. 

Harvesting and hand-sorting are the first human-controlled sorting phases in the process. Elias negotiated quality standards with the workers that live in the area to individually float the harvest and remove beans with visible color, ripeness, or pest defects. This is a meticulous addition to the process and requires a significant investment in labor to have it done well. Once this is completed, the next step is to remove the skin and pulp through pulping and fermentation. Both pulping and fermentation can contribute to diminish quality if not managed well, but if managed well it can be a source of improvement. 

Elias maintains very clean equipment and fermentation tanks to manage consistency. Plus, he uses a fermentation and cleaning method where the coffee is fermented overnight and washed twice, improving the cleanliness of the coffee and cup. Drying is a preservation stage for storage and transport, but it is also a very important quality phase where temperature, humidity, and sun exposure can influence the stability and cup quality. Elias uses 50% shade to keep drying temps down.

Team taste notes: toffee, nougat, grape, apple, pear, brown spice