If you’re a lover of strong flavours, you’ll love the coffee from El Silencio Farm. Although it is anaerobically-natural, it remains nicely clean and sweet with strong notes of tropical fruit, peach and dark chocolate.
The farm / washing station:
Inza is a municipality located in the north-east of Cauca, situated at 1754 meters above sea level it has a dry, tropical climate. Famous for its archaeology, coffee and indigenous history which begins in 1577 when the Spaniard, Sancho Garcia de Espino, established the location as a camp. A church was the first settlement, built in 1737 which led to the construction of the rest of the town, which gained recognition as a municipality in 1907. The indigenous history of Inza is significant because of the Guanaca tribe who it’s believed used the site as a place of burial. In modern day, Inza is a region that is in post-conflict recovery, and the production of coffee offers great value as an alternative for the trade of illicit crops.
Asorcafe was founded on July 11, 2003 in the town of Pedegral in Inza and currently there are 290 members who are part of the association. The association was set up to help these producers become organised to sell their coffees as specialty but also provide a framework and structure to further their education and progression to improve the economic and social conditions for themselves, their families and their community. These small producers work on plots of land between 1.8 – 2 ha in size and farm coffee up to altitudes of 2100 masl. The farms are planted with caturra, typica, bourbon, tabi, castillo and some pink bourbon.
Robinson Rivera Muelas is a 38 year old coffee grower from Piendamó, Cauca. His farm, El Silencio, is situated in the vereda (village) of El Agrado at an altitude of 1740 m.a.s.l. In addition to his own production, Robinson also processes and dries coffee cherries brought to him by smaller growers in the area who lack proper processing facilities. He employs a unique double anaerobic fermentation method involving an initial anaerobic phase followed by an aerobic phase towards the end of the process. The coffee is then dried using both mechanical dryers and parabolic dryers.
Variety:
Castillo is the most common coffee variety grown in Colombia. It is a hybrid of the Caturra and Timor Hybrid varieties and was bred by the National Coffee Research Centre (Cenicafé) for its resistance to leaf rust. It was released into production in 2005 and named after the researcher Jamie Castillo. It is a “dwarf” tree that can be planted at high densities, resulting in high yields. However, some specialty coffee experts consider it inferior to other varieties because it shares a genetic heritage with robusta beans, as Timor is a natural hybrid of Arabica and Robusta. Castillo, which is popular for its compact structure and high yield, has gradually replaced Typica and Bourbon varieties in the country and has become the most cultivated coffee in Colombia.
Processing:
After picking the coffee the coffee is fermented for 42 hours in an open tank if cold and 36 hours if warmer. The coffee is then dried in a parabolic drier for 10 – 14 days weather dependent.
Our baristas notes:
We are glad that after a long time we managed to get a coffee with a longer fermentation. This Colombia is the perfect coffee for cooler days when you want a coffee with a more juicy body and a dense finish. The longer fermentation than is usual with natural coffees is very pleasantly noticeable in the taste. The body is dominated by stone fruit notes, mostly peach and apricot, combined with passion fruit and mango. On the finish you can easily find full, dense notes of darker quality chocolate. The coffee has medium phosphoric-malic acidity and medium sweetness.
Recommended recipe for V60:
93 °C water
300ml water
20g coffee
540 micron grind (18 clicks per comandante)
0:00 40ml water
0:40 110 ml water
1:25 75ml water
2:05 75 ml water
Total time around 2:50 – 3:00 minutes.
