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Hacienda Santa Gertrudis Natural Sidra
LYCHEE | ROSEWATER | MANGO | PASSIONFRUIT | CHERRY LIQUEUR
*Roast Date: April 7th*
Jose Luis consistently produces one of the best Sidras in Ecuador and his processing is dialled in. His naturals are so tasty. He found a way to preserve the individuality of the Sidra variety but enhance the cup with clean and elegant winey notes that complement the botanical and tropical notes from the Sidra. It’s really inspiring to taste and makes me proud to be able to share Jose Luis’ mastery with y’all.
This Sidra was carefully picked, and then hand sorted. The coffee was then fermented in a sealed tank for 48 hours. Once it reached a pH of 4.2, Jose Luis stopped the fermentation, and began drying the coffee on shaded raised beds over 25 days with low humidity drying conditions and a drying temperature of 30-35 C. During this period, the coffee was also carefully picked through to remove any unripe or damaged cherries. Being anal during drying is what separates great producers from good producers.
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ECUADOR IS ONE OF THE WORLDS’ BEST PRODUCING COUNTRIES
Ecuador’s top coffees are as good as any other country’s top coffees - there, I said it! Panama and Colombia have their fame, and rightfully so, but Ecuador is no slouch, it’s just not as good as marketing their coffees as the other two. Jose Luis’ coffee is one of the top coffees in Ecuador - and, using my logic, one of the best coffees in the world. Period.
One thing I love about Jose Luis is that he is not afraid to take risks and this is how he has achieved so much in so little time. He only started in coffee farming in 2015, ya, that’s right! 2015! What has made him such a coffee prodigy is that he started from the outside in: he fell in love with an SL28 from Kenya he tried in Portland and that experience single handedly changed his view on coffee.
He started in coffee in 2015, but coffee is actually in his blood. His grandfather, Luis Emilio, first planted coffee in Hacienda Santa Gertrudis in the 1950s. Jose Luis’ father then expanded the coffee plantation in the 1990s, but the market collapse of 1999 forced them to abandon the coffee plantation and focus on the construction business.
But in 2015, Jose Luis’ newfound love for coffee propelled him to plant Caturra, Yellow Catuaí, Geisha, SL-28, Typica Mejorado and Sidra. By the way, this is from Jose Luis himself - it sums up why he’s knocked it out of the park in so little time.
“Naturally, drinking the SL-28 aroused my curiosity; how do you obtain those flavours? Was it the variety? The origin? Could this be replicated in Santa Gertrudis? There would be no turning back; I decided to follow this new passion to undertake the journey to produce world-class coffee. I began to educate myself on coffee. I planted coffee at the farm again, searching for high-quality genetic material, and investigating and implementing new processing and drying techniques.“
So, that should give you a glimpse into the kind of fire that drives Jose Luis. That fire has resulted in him reaching world class status in an incredibly short time. I will say one more thing about Jose Luis - he is kind, generous and humble - I can say he’s quickly become one of my favourite people to visit in Ecuador.
– Sebastian
