Colombia Cafe Granja La Esperanza XO Natural

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 of 17-22°C. With rainfall at an average of 1340mm per year and humidity around 73%.

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.

Cherry for this lot is pulped without water and fermented for around 35 hours after an initial fermentation of between 19 and 22 hours. In total, comfortably over 50 hours fermenting and what gives it that rum, brandy-like characteristic. It is then dried for around 28 days in solar dryers before resting to stabilise.