Colombia Finca Villa Lara Washed 36HR Fermentation 2023

Finca Villa Lara – Colombian micro-lot coffee

In 2010, Jonathan Lara Parke and Beatriz Gomez Cala settled at Villa Lara with the intention set out to start a small recreational farm. All that changed during a chance encounter with an agronomist from the National Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC) who steered the couple towards a program to revitalize Colombia’s coffee industry.

Finca Villa Lara is located in the Colombian coffee department of Cundinamarca, at 1650masl. The farm now boasts over 45,000 coffee trees growing on eight of its 23 hectares. Jonathan and Beatriz specialize in producing micro lots of high-quality coffee, coupled with practices that embrace all aspects of sustainability, including land conservation, wildlife protection, and worker empowerment.

Castillo and Tabi Green Coffee Varieties

Colombia is one of the few coffee origins that grows Arabica coffee almost exclusively. The high altitudes of the Andes mountains make it a perfect fit for Arabica cultivation. The Castillo and Tabi varieties were both developed by Cenicafe, Colombia’s premier coffee research center, as rust-resistant strains. Tabi is a cross between Typica, Bourbon, and Timor hybrid, while Castillo is a hybrid of Caturra and Timor hybrid varieties.

Washed 36 Hour Fermentation

In this micro-lot, ripe red cherries were harvested and cleaned and sorted through a hydraulic separator. The cherries were then pulped in moved to steel fermentation tanks with a total fermentation time of 36 hours. The lot was subsequently washed to remove any remaining mucilage and moved to solar and mechanical dryers until it reached the optimal moisture level.

Washed processing has become widely popular. The cup profile of washed coffees tends to reflect the terroir of the coffee. The processing method allows the growing conditions, the region, and the true character of the coffee to shine through.

Colombian Coffee

Over half a million families dedicate their livelihoods to producing unroasted Colombia green coffee on small farms that dot the country’s volcanic mountain ranges. As the world’s third-largest producing country, the volume, quality, and variety that comes out of Colombia year-round is staggering. Coffee from Colombia is never dull, and with 16 coffee-producing regions along three mountain ranges and two harvests each year, Colombia always has fresh coffee on hand. Read more in our Colombian Coffee Origin Report.