This is also the coffee we looked for on our origin trip in Colombia. Just like Oscar Hernandez’s coffees, Marisol Ñañéz’s coffees are already regulars in our offer and we are very happy to establish such a partnership. Marisol, like Oscar, has a farm in the Huila region around the city of Bruselas. It was the first coffee region we looked at and we were absolutely blown away by it. Unfortunately we didn’t get to Marisol’s farm due to her busy schedule, but we met her and her family several times and it was always a memorable experience because the whole Ñañéz family is extremely friendly and lively.
The Farm:
Marisol Ñañéz, who is the owner of Finca La Correa, grew up in a family of coffee farmers, so it’s no wonder she decided to dedicate her life to coffee. She was involved in the farm from a young age and at the age of ten she received her first piece of land from her dad, which acted as a great motivation for her. Later, in 2009, she went to Bogotá to do a course on quality and also physical and sensory analysis of coffee. Then in 2010, Marisol won a competition and as a prize she got the opportunity to become a Q grader (certified quality controller). She later completed her training in coffee selection so that she could then apply everything on the farm. She also ran a women’s organization for 5 years with her own products, especially roasted coffee, which helped her gain exposure and recognition for her project management and marketing skills.
The farm has started growing exotic varieties such as Pink Bourbon, Bourbon Ají and others. They also began experimenting with fermentations.
“Originally, my dad lived with my mom at my paternal grandmother’s house, but to support the family, he traveled to the department of Putumayo to work as a laborer. He used to get hired for coca cultivation work. The work was good, and after a few months he told my mother to go and see him and us, we were three siblings at the time. Eight days after my mother moved with us, the government started persecuting people who were growing coca and the bombing started. My mom ran away with us and hid us from the planes that were dropping bombs, so she quickly decided to come back to Huila with us, and that’s when my dad bought a quarter of an acre from one of his brothers and started growing coffee on it. Step by step he bought small plots of land, and gradually in this way he bought from five different owners about 9 hectares of land on which we have coffee and 2 hectares of nature reserve.
Since then we have been working with choice coffee, we have made a good name for ourselves with our results, we have coffee that has won awards for its quality. Thanks to the natural conditions and the quality of the soil, which is rich in nutrients, our coffee is characterised by its smoothness and balance with notes of citrus and flowers with medium acidity. Thanks to coffee, we can live in peace and have a relatively good life, even though the work on the farm is far from easy and simple.”
Variety:
Pink Bourbon is a quite recent variety, discovered by luck in 2014 by Lucho on his farm in Colombia. Although it has Bourbon in its name, it doesn’t have that much in common with the Bourbon variety. Lucho gave it this name because he found it growing among the Bourbon variety and its fruit is slightly pinkish. After DNA analysis, it turned out that the dominant genetic component is represented by Ethiopian heirloom varieties, followed by a slight resemblance to Mufindi (Tanzania), Bourbon and Catimor. Taste-wise, it is a very good variety. Juicy, with a full body and acidity reminiscent of Kenyan coffees.
Processing:
The lot is processed something between a washed and semi-washed method with extended fermentation and has repeatedly had great results. First, the coffee is deselected and only ripe cherries are collected, then sorted of bad cherries and impurities. This is followed by fermentation in the cherries for 48 hours. The coffee is then moved into bags where it is fermented in the pulp for a further 72 hours. This is followed by drying, which takes about 24 days.
Our baristas notes:
You can already see on the coffee beans that they have been fermented a bit longer. The grinding must be adjusted accordingly. Similar to anaerobically processed coffees Marisol’s coffee flows faster. We used a grind of 18 clicks for 20g of coffee at a final output of 280ml and 4 pours. The final time came out best around 2 minutes and 50 seconds. The coffee has a very pleasant tea-like oolong character while retaining a lovely juicy fruity body. The body is dominated by sweet stone fruit notes and a strong blackcurrant-like acidity.
