Tasting Profile Panela, soft chocolate, light fruits and some nuts. Clean, balanced and a great all round drinker.
 
Origin : Colombia
Region : Trujilo
Producer : Cafe Granja La Esperanza
Process : Washed
Altitude : 1500-1800 masl
Varietal : Caturra, Colombia, Mandela
 
Cafe Granja La Esperanza is an award winning coffee producer from Colombia. There are 5 farms in total and this coffee is from their farm named 'La Esperanza'. This producer is continually pushing boundaries by experimenting with farming and processing methods to create unique and great tastnig coffees. For example the Mandela variety of arabica in this coffee has been grown by taking the desireable characteristics of traditional Colombian varieties and crossing with those typically found in Ethiopia. Adding subtle fruits notes to the classic Colombian taste.
 
Coffee at La Esperanza is selectively hand-picked and sorted to remove any under ripe or visibly damaged cherries. Around 12 workers are brought in annually particularly for the harvest. After sorting, the coffee is delivered to the wet mill where it is dry pulped and then fermented without water for between 14 and 16 hours. After being washed, the parchment is moved to parabolic beds to dry in the sun. Depending on volumes, some coffee may also be laid to dry on cement patios. 
 
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On the La Esperanza farm Laurina, Colombia, Geisha, Yellow Bourbon, Caturra and Mandela varieties are grown. They also have five permanent staff who both harvest and train the seasonal workers before they start picking coffee. They continually develop their coffee offerings by sourcing varieties not commonly grown in Colombia, tweaking processes to get the best from each variety of coffee and using grafting to improve existing coffee varieties. For example, they have produced Mokka trees (which are usually 2 metres tall) into medium-sized trees (roughly 1 meter and 20 cm), which makes it a lot easier to pick the fruit and to fertilise the tree.
 
This coffee contains one of the newer varietals that have come from these producers, Mandela. This is a self pollinated selection from Caturra x Caturra, choosing a bean that gave the best characteristics. This was then crossed with the Timor Hybrid in order to provide some resistance to rust, before being crossed again with Ethiopian landrace varietals such as Sudan Rume, Daleco, and Villa Sarchi. The offspring from those were then selected for the best performing and the varietal stabilised, with the resultant trees exhibiting both bronze and green tips.