Neighbors & crops
HERNANDO LAVERDE
LA GUIRNALDA
Village: Zipacon, Cundinamarca
Altitude: 1600 M.A.S.L
Variety: Castillo
The Profile
Don Hernando is 71 years old and has grown coffee for over 40 years. Putting together his life savings, he took the leap and bought his farm, La Guirnalda, over 13 years ago. Nestled in the village of Zipacon at 1500 meters above sea level, this farm has one hectare planted with coffee, as well as foliage that Hernando sells locally to increase his income. This farm is located very near our farm and is directly in front of the ‘Camino Real’, a stone trail that was built by pilgrims in our region more than 400 years ago, connecting different towns around the region.
Raised by coffee growers from Zipacon, Hernando began learning about the crop at a young age. As an adult his interest in coffee continued, mainly because it is a long term crop that in his experience has had good and profitable years. Ultimately, what drives him is his love for the countryside. Hernando has 4 children, 3 sons and 1 daughter, unfortunately none of them found an interest in growing coffee.
This is his second year with the program and he tells us he has noticed a big difference. Hernando used to sell his coffee at a cooperative at the nearest town of cachipay. In the last few years Hernando has suffered from medical issues with his back, for this reason he is thankful our cherry picking team is able to help with the physical labor. We want Hernando to continue to grow coffee, and he does too, hopefully we can continue to help eachother out for many years to come!
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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