Aponte
Aponte
Aponte
Aponte
Aponte
Aponte
Colombia

Aponte

Espresso • Fruity & lively

Herbal with juicy notes of red apple and the sweetness of dried fruits and caramel.

€17,00
€68,00/kg
Tax included.
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€61,20 EUR
€55,08 EUR

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Farm: Smallholder farms

Region: Aponte, Nariño

Altitude: 1700–1800 MASL

Variety: Caturra

Process: Honey

Honey process

Fermentation

The ripe cherries are carefully hand-selected and washed to remove any impurities or bad cherries. Then, they are kept in fermentation tanks for around 24 to 36 hours, depending on the weather conditions and cherry ripeness. The temperature of the water is maintained between 20-25°C during this process.

Drying

After fermentation, the de-pulped cherries are placed on raised beds and kept under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. The ambient temperature is maintained between 20-30°C and relative humidity is kept around 50-60%. This process takes approximately 10 to 14 days until the coffee beans reach the desired moisture content of 10–12%.

farm story

The Inga Community

The Inga community of Aponte is a fascinating group of descendants of the pre-Hispanic Incas. During the period of conquest, they remained isolated high in the mountains, which became their natural refuge. This community did not resume significant contact with the rest of Colombia until the second half of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, in the 1990s, contact was mostly criminal, and Inga’s refuge became a place of cruelty. For years, the tribe was forcibly involved in poppy and heroin production under the influence of guerrilla groups, drug traffickers, and paramilitaries. The once-peaceful mountains teemed with illegal plantations and violence, in which the Ingas were trapped until as recently as fifteen years ago.

In the last decade, the mountains have become a safe zone for the Inga tribe, and illegal crops have been eradicated to give way to a new culture: coffee! The Caturra variety has been planted in the Inga territory, on smallholder properties in the Resguardo Inga Aponte, at an average of 2150 meters above sea level. This elevation, combined with the Galeras Volcano constantly shedding nutrient-rich ash, makes for an exceptionally complex and sweet coffee.

For years, the tribe was forcibly involved in poppy and heroin production under the influence of guerrilla groups, drug traffickers, and paramilitaries.

The Aponte community has been living with the destructive effects of a fault line opening through the town for several years. The mountains shift almost like a slow-moving earthquake, and a giant gap has opened in the land that runs through the town’s centre, damaging the community and private buildings, including the local church and many homes.

Efforts to rebuild are stalled because of uncertainty about where the fault line will progress next. Because the town is so far from urban centres, government help has also been slow to arrive. Despite the added challenge, the coffee growers in Aponte, an overwhelmingly agricultural community, have continued to produce exceptional coffees and exceptional amounts of them.

The coffee producers in Aponte process coffee as both fully washed and honey. Each producer has a small mill area for de-pulping, washing, and drying on their farms. They process coffee daily as it comes freshly harvested from the trees. In Colombia, it is common for cherries to be processed on the farms where they are grown. Coffee trees are typically planted right up to the walls of the mill, and cherries usually go straight from harvest buckets and into the mill.

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