Colombia Cafe Granja La Esperanza Sidra Hybrid Washed

Beginning in 1930, Israel Correa and Carmen Rosa Vega arrived in Valle del Cauca seeking unoccupied land to start a farm, acquiring Potosi. Over the upcoming years, there weren’t major changes in their way of life, besides of raising a big family which was the Colombian tradition in those days. Following this and the lack of labor, the children had to help by doing farm work. In 1945, three different varieties were introduced to the existing Typica; Yellow Bourbon, Red Bourbon and Caturra.

Two of the eleven children, Rigoberto and Luis, showed special interest in coffee production and processing. They decided to give their crop a new direction, changing to organic in the late 90’s. Besides Potosí, another farm in the Trujillo region was acquired to enlarge the organic production, La Esperanza farm. In 2007 Don Rigoberto had the chance to lease and manage a coffee farm in the region of Boquete in Panama, called “La Carleida”, and a year later obtained first place in the “Best coffee of Panama”. At this point he decided to bring some of the Geisha seeds to Colombia, starting a new era in the history of Granja La Esperanza.

Five farms now make up the Café Granja La Esperanza: Cerro Azul, Las Margaritas, La Esperanza, Potosi and Hawaii. With a reputation for producing competition winning coffees, processes are matched with varieties to produce unique flavour profiles.

In the municipality of Caicedonia lies the Potosi farm; 52 hectares, 188725 (coffee) trees sitting in a temperature band between 17-22°C. With rainfall at an average of 1340mm per year and humidity around 73%, these are great coffee growing conditions.

They produce a few lots here; Tres Dragones, Sidra, Tabi, Burila, and the main contributor to Sweet Valley, this is the original farm, and has produced some of the most exciting lots for us over the last few seasons. One of these was Sidra, blowing the competition away on the cupping table and selling out in seconds. 2020 sees the second time we have had this and we couldn’t be happier!

The Hybrid washed coffees have grown in popularity on the farm, treading a balance between reinforcing the fruit characteristics whilst maintaining the crisp sweetness and clarity of washed coffees. Fermented for between 48 and 50 hours the cherry is then washed and pulped and before being moved to the solar drying beds where it remains for 28 days.

The varietal itself was brought to the farm from Ecuador in 2016, more specifically the Pichincha province. after spending some time in the nursery, it was planted in the fields of Potosi in April 2017. With an ‘average’ bean size and bourbon typical heritage it’s a stunning varietal, though has an Achilles heel in that it is easily detached from the plant in rain.