Neighbors & crops
EFRAIN BARRERA
SAN ISIDRO
Village: Anatoli, Cundinamarca
Altitude: 1610 M.A.S.L
Variety: Castillo
The Profile
Efrain is 75 years old and has been growing coffee all of his life. His parents and grandparents were also coffee growers and taught him how to progress in the industry. His farm, La Mision, is located in the Anatoli village at 1500 masl. Don Efrain obtained his farm 50 years ago after he inherited part of it from his mother and bought the rest with his own earnings. La Mision is planted with all types of varieties, including Colombia, Castillo, Caturra, and some Tabi all mixed in a 7 hectare space.
Don Efrain lives on the farm with his wife and between the two they are in charge of all the responsibilities of the farm. Although they have three children, none of them are in the coffee industry. Seeing generational lines of coffee producers end is part of the reason why we created the Neighbors & Crops program. To keep the youth interested in such a traditional Colombian practice: coffee cultivation.
Before joining the program Efrain was in charge of processing all his coffee alone. He faced many challenges, particularly due to the lack of infrastructure necessary for an organized and systematic production. Don Efrain tells us that at his age, the program has not only brought monetary benefits but it has helped lower the physical strain each harvest has on his body. We are more than happy to help veteran farmers like Don Efrain.
Key Facts
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Proccesing Methods
Lactic
This kind of fermentation is classified as ‘Anaerobic’ as oxygen has minimal interaction with the cherry. Once the cherries arrive at the mill, they are hand sorted and placed in sealed tanks. With no oxygen involved, bacteria feed on carbohydrates present in the mucilage favoring a higher concentration of Lactic Acid, creating a unique profile of the resulting cup.
Honey
The Honey Process begins with a pre-fermentation stage of 45 hours at the wet mill. From here the cherries will start the de-pulping stage, passing through three stages of quality control before removing a percentage of the skin. While the drying stage, coffee will be placed in African-style raised beds for over 15 days. Due to the levels of sugar and moisture, the first days will be crucial to avoid microbial activity prolongation. Finally parchment coffee will pass through the mechanical drying machines to end up the drying process.
Mixed
This method involves a combination of stages found in lactic and acetic processing methods. First, all hand-sorted cherries will go through a short pre-fermentation step. Similar to lactic processing, the cherries are placed in airtight fermentation tanks with limited oxygen. Once removed from the tanks, we pass them through three levels of quality control before having the skin removed by a pulper machine. From there, we leave the beans resting in the fermentation tanks to undergo an acetic fermentation, agitating them from time to time. Once the process is completed, the beans are transferred to African-style raised beds to begin the drying phase.
Our Mixed Fermentation Processing produces a very balanced cup profile with medium to heavy body.
Bio-Innovation
Through the Bioinnovation process, La Palma & El Tucán honors the main principles of organic farming. They first capture and reproduce microorganisms found in their farm’s beautiful forests, to create their own fermentation substrate. Then, they mix this substrate with perfectly ripen geisha cherries, in a clay pot for 100 hours. This combination allows them to create a sustainable closed cycle. After the fermentation, they remove the leftovers and reuse them as compost.
If you wish to request additional information about the processing of your microlot, such as fermentation time or type of drying, please let us know by filling this form.
We will get back to you soon with detailed information.
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