Nemesio is a third-generation producer from beautiful Tarqui Huila – cool fact: they make (not very good) wine in Tarqui. He inherited a portion of his farm – called La Galaxia – from his father and has taken over the production of the farm since his late teens. His wife Fredy and him have raised all seven of their kids on the farm.

Due to labour shortages in Colombia, most of the workers of the farm are family members and during the peaks of the harvests, Nemesio can beef up the workforce with nearby seasonal workers.

His processing is meticulous. The picking is done many times per harvest, and they stick to purely ripe picking. He immediately floats the cherry in water to remove “floaters." Floaters are low density cherries that result in very poor-quality coffee – trust me, you don’t want floaters in your morning (or afternoon) coffee.

He then rests the floated cherries in a dark cool spot for 12 hours – this kicks off a fermentation process that has shown to add more sweetness and fruity flavours to the cup. Once this is complete the coffee is de-pulped and fermented for another 24-30 hours before finally washing off the now-detached mucilage. The sun-drying process is slow, aided by the location of his farm (1900m elevation) and the shade installed to cover the drying structure and keep the temperature inside the drying structure agreeable with coffee (20-35C). All in all, the drying process takes 20-30 days. We’re very excited about Nemesio’s coffee and look forward to continuing to work with him!

This green coffee was frozen immediately on arrival in Calgary, to preserve freshness.

-Sebastian