Jairo Lopez

Introducing the black series, a place for coffees that don’t quite fit into our normal line-up. Whether they are a bit too wild, a bit too floral or just a bit too expensive, these will always be outstanding coffees.

Our third black series is an outstanding geisha from Jairo Lopez from La Esperanza. This specific lot was processed as a carbonic maceration natural. This process gives the coffee an incredible candy-like sweetness. The florals from the geisha variety together with the fruitiness of the process give this cup the distinctive flavour notes of lavender and raspberry.

The La Esperanza family farm is located in the municipality of Pijao at 1760 metres above sea level, better known as the Quindio mountain range. This farm has a 3x3 planting distance which allows the trees to fully express themselves and have enough space to develop and grow in optimal conditions. Through pruning they shape the trees in such a way that they have a consistent harvest throughout the whole year. 

Only the perfectly ripe cherries are picked and then directly transferred into 120 kg sealed plastic tanks to start the fermentation in an anoxic environment. 30cm of headspace is left between the top of the cherries and the lid. a waterlock is placed in the lid to allow oxygen to be released while trapping the C02, creating a natural carbonic maceration. During the first 2 days, the coffee must (juice or extract produced during fermentation) is taken out every 12 hours, refrigerated for 4 hours and added back to the tank to make sure the PH never drops below 3,9 and the temperature never rises above 24°C. During the following two days, the must that is now too acidic is simply removed as it gets produced. The fifth day the coffee is placed on raised beds to dry for 20 to 25 days. Once the coffee has reached a moisture content of 14% it is put in plastic bags to stabilize for 3 days before being put out in the sun to finish the drying process and reach 10,5-11,5%.

Origin: Colombia
Region: Pijao, Quindio
Farm: La Esperanza
Producer: Jairo Lopez & family
Variety: Geisha
Process: Carbonic Maceration Natural