Lolly Drop Espresso

I first met Jose in October of 2014 while cupping coffees in Pitalito, Colombia. During this first meeting, I was instantly impressed by Jose’s ambition and thirst for knowledge. Naturally, Jose asked me to taste his coffee, but I needed to leave for the airport within half an hour. Jose pleaded for me not to leave then jumped on his motorbike and sped out of the lot.

He returned 29 minutes later with 4 green coffee samples and said, “please taste them in Canada and tell me what you think”. Days later, Phil and I tasted those four samples in Canada and they were awesome. I made a commitment to purchase all of Jose’s harvest shortly afterwards.

Jose was born on a coffee farm and first learned about coffee from his father. When he was 16 Jose decided to leave and ended up becoming a long-haul bus driver. He did this for over a decade until he decided to return home, buy the farm from his dad, and follow in his footsteps. Although he now regrets temporarily leaving the farm, he feels the time away developed a fire within him to become a better coffee producer.

Since 2015, with the help of his wife, Francy, all Jose has done is improve and reap the rewards. For me, it’s been amazing to watch it unfold. They have almost replanted the entire farm. They grow Caturra, Pink Bourbon, and Ethiopia Heirloom. The trees look great – they’re not overplanted, nor deprived of natural shade.

At the time of picking, Jose and Francy use a Brix meter to calibrate the pickers to pick optimally ripe cherries. They have also experimented with various methods of fermentation and have settled on using extended fermentations; determining end points using a pH meter. Their standard fermentation now consists of 36 hours of anaerobic in cherry form, followed by 36-40 hours in an open tank. The coffee is then washed and lovingly dried.

On the drying front, Jose built a large and impressive shaded drying structure with a creative curtain system to control the airflow, which is key to drying coffee well. This drying structure was one of the things that impressed me about Jose when I first visited him. He asked me what he should improve, and I suggested his drying and within a few months, he had built all this great drying infrastructure.

The results of all this work have spoken for themselves. I have loved his coffee every year since 2015. Jose is a feel-good story that I am very proud to play a part of.