Los Patios - Colombia

The Coffee Quest is an importer, with their EU headquarters based in Amsterdam. Los Patios is The Coffee Quest's first processing headquarters, located in La Plata, Huila, Colombia. Under the leadership of Alexis Silva (Quality Analyst) and Alberto Gutierrez (Regional Coordinator), the R&D department of The Coffee Quest launched Los Patios in 2022 as an initiative to elevate cup quality of coffees from producers facing processing challenges, as well as consistency issues due to factors such as climate change and lack of access to farming infrastructure. Los Patios is equipped with a lab, trained personnel, and drying patios. The facility allows The Coffee Quest to purchase cherries from local producers and support them in coffee processing, as well as putting their coffees out on the global market.

This lot, Solsticio, is the first coffee that was designed by the R&D team. The lot consists of Castillo and Caturra varieties harvested by various producers in the La Plata region. The cherries undergo three fermentation stages. In the first stage, an aerobic fermentation of at least 12 hours takes place at the individual farms. Then, the cherries are de-pulped and transported to Los Patios for further processing. In the second stage of fermentation, mosto (a fruit concoction) is made. This mosto undergoes an external controlled fermentation before being added to the coffee in the final step. At last, the mosto is added to the de-pulped cherries. The cherries are fermented initially for 5 hours aerobically, then for another 12 hours anaerobically.

The cherries are then dried for 12 to 16 days in a controlled environment, where there is constant movement and rotation to ensure an even drying. After reaching the target moisture value, the coffee is stored and stabilized in GrainPro (vacuumed) bags to maintain the adequate moisture levels until being sent to the dry-mill. The result of this thoroughly researched and refined processing is a unique cup, sweet and juicy like an apricot, complex acidity of grapefruit, with an herbal undertone and refreshing finish of rosemary.