Guinda - Colombia

The municipality of San Augustin is home to a vibrant community of coffee producers. This area of Colombia is known for their ideal coffee-growing terroir, with coffee farms located around 1,750 m.a.s.l. The beauty and rich archeological history also makes this area an UNESCO World Heritage Site. To live in harmony with the surrounding nature, producers have placed a great importance in environmental sustainability while mastering innovative processing techniques to elevate the flavor profiles of their coffees.

This lot of coffee comes from multiple small holder producers from the regions of Tolima, Huila, and Caldas, which are all transported and processed at El Vergel Estate, the family farm of the founders of Forest Coffee - a Colombian coffee exporter and a community builder. With a thriving network of 250 coffee producers and community projects across Colombia, Forest Coffee strives to unlock the true potential of Colombian coffee through innovation in processing, education, and sustainability while connecting producers to the international market and ensuring fair pricing and full transparency.

This lot of Caturra and Colombia cherries undergo two fermentation stages. First, the cherries are placed in plastic bags for 48 hours for an anaerobic fermentation process to foster the initial flavor development. Then the coffee cherries are depulped, mucilage still intact. The second fermentation stage involves a mixture of yeast, sugarcane and cherry musts to enrich the flavors and sweetness. Once the two fermentation stages are competed, the beans are first dried under the sun, then placed in static silos - storage containers with controlled airflow to reduce moisture content in green beans uniformly and gently - for a 30-day stabilization period.

The result of this meticulous process is a flavorful and complex cup, with elegant aroma that reminds us of vanilla, lingering sweetness of cherry, with a warm flavor of amaretto which makes this coffee especially fitting for the cold winter days.