Colombia Santa Rita Estate Single-Origin Bean Grading, Pricing, Green Beans, and Roasting Profile

Colombia Santa Rita Estate: Grading, Price, Green Beans and Roasting Profile

NARINO

Some of Colombia's highest-quality coffee grows in Nariño, which can fairly be described as the most astonishing and flavor-complex. In many high-altitude areas, growing coffee is a challenge, since the trees may be attacked by leaf blight; Nariño, however, lies close enough to the equator that the climate suits coffee. Of Nariño's 40,000 producers, the vast majority are smallholders, each farming less than 2 hectares (4.4 acres). Many form groups and institutions to support one another and to interact with the FNC. In fact, the average farm is less than 1 hectare (2.2 acres), and only 37 producers in the region own more than 5 hectares (11 acres).

Altitude: 1,500-2,300m (4,900-7,500ft)

Harvest: April-June. Varieties: 54% Typica, 29% Caturra, 17% Castillo

HUILA

Huila combines excellent soil with geographical advantages for coffee growing, and some of the most complex, fruit-forward Colombian coffees come from here. The region has over 70,000 coffee growers covering more than 16,000 hectares (equivalent to 39,500 acres).

Altitude: 1,250-2,000m

Harvest: September-December (main crop), April-May (mitaca crop)

Main varieties: 11% Typica, 75% Caturra, 14% Castillo

A special combination of factors - the latitude, altitude, soil and botanical origin of Colombia's coffee regions, along with the coffee varieties themselves - produces a climate and rain pattern shaped by the two paths of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, topography and light intensity that shift constantly through the day, favorable temperatures year-round, and reliable, well-distributed rainfall. Together with common cultural practices such as selective harvesting and washed and dried processing, these create conditions extremely well suited to coffee: mild climate, humid air and a harvest possible in any season. That is why Colombian coffee quality is so high. Colombia has three Cordillera ranges running north-south into the Andes, and coffee is planted along the highlands of these ranges. The mountain terraces provide diverse climates that make it harvest season year-round, with different coffee types ripening in succession. Fortunately, unlike Brazil, Colombia doesn't have to worry about frost damage. Colombia has approximately 2.7 billion documented coffee trees, of which 66% are planted in modern cultivation systems within plantations and the rest on traditionally run small farms.

Today Vietnam's coffee production in Asia has surpassed Colombia's, and Indonesia has also developed into the world's fourth-largest coffee-producing country. In 1721, the French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu overcame numerous difficulties to bring the first coffee seedling from Africa to Martinique in Latin America, marking the beginning of coffee cultivation there. Because France was under Bourbon dynasty rule at the time, the Arabica planted in Latin America acquired another name that remains renowned in the industry today: Bourbon. Today Bourbon is an important branch of Arabica coffee. The overall flavor profile of Latin American coffee is known for balance - all coffee flavors can be found in Latin American coffees. The common use of wet processing for green beans is another characteristic of the region, and good processing also makes bean sizes larger and more uniform than African coffees, with lower defect rates. Colombia is one of the world's largest producers of quality coffee, a shining pearl on the world coffee map and a coffee-favored land blessed by nature. Arabica is planted on steep slopes at altitudes of 800-1900 meters in the foothills, all hand-picked and wet-processed.

Colombia's suitable climate provides a true "natural pasture" for coffee. Its coffee trees are mainly cultivated in the Andes region, on steep slopes around 1,300 meters above sea level, where the temperature holds near 18 degrees Celsius year-round, annual rainfall is 2000-3000 mm, and the country spans latitude 1°-11°15' N and longitude 72°-78° W, with specific altitude ranges that can exceed 2,000 meters.

Varieties: Catuai, Caturra

Estate: Santa Rita

The history of coffee cultivation in Colombia stretches back to the Spanish colonial era of the 16th century. There are many versions of that history:

First: it is said to have come from the Caribbean island of Haiti, arriving by sea via El Salvador in Central America.

Second: in 1808, a priest first introduced coffee beans to Colombia from the French Antilles via Venezuela. One version holds that Colombia's first coffee seeds entered through Santander Province from Venezuela.

Third: the earliest record of coffee cultivation in Colombia appears in the Spanish missionary Jose Gumilla's book "The Illustrated Orinoca." He described his experiences preaching on both banks of the Meta River in 1730 and mentioned local coffee plantations. By 1787, other missionaries had spread coffee to other parts of Colombia.

Hand-poured Colombia Santa Rita: 15g of coffee, medium grind (small Fuji ghost-tooth blade setting 4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and stop. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring again, then slowly pour until reaching 225g total. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Flavor: sugarcane, clean, medium body

Colombia, in the northwestern part of South America, is a beautiful country with a long history. Indigenous peoples have lived and thrived on this land since ancient times; it became a Spanish colony in 1531 and gained independence in 1819, and it was renamed to its current name in 1886 in honor of Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of the American continent. Colombia has beautiful mountains and rivers, pleasant scenery, a comfortable climate with spring-like weather year-round, and fresh air. It is rich in natural resources, especially coffee, flowers, gold and emeralds, known as the country's "four treasures." Today it is the second-largest coffee producer after Brazil, the world's largest exporter of Arabica coffee beans, and the world's largest exporter of washed coffee beans. Colombian coffee is often described as having a silky-smooth mouthfeel. Among all coffees it has the best balance, with a soft, smooth texture that can be enjoyed at any time, and it has earned praise matched by few others: it is known as "green gold."

Caturra is a natural mutation of the Arabica Bourbon variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. The plant is shorter than Bourbon and more compact. Because it carries Bourbon's lineage, its disease resistance is relatively weak, but its yields are higher than Bourbon's. Although discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not well suited to growing there, so it was never cultivated on a large scale in Brazil; instead it became widely popular in Central and South America, with large-scale cultivation in Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Compared with these botanical traits, people may care more about Caturra's flavor. The higher the altitude, the better the quality of Caturra, but correspondingly the lower the yield. When lightly roasted, Caturra shows obvious acidic aromas and overall brightness. With proper processing its sweetness can be excellent, but the body is relatively low compared with Bourbon, and the cleanliness of the mouthfeel is somewhat lacking.

Caturra berries are usually red, but in very rare areas there are yellow Caturra varieties; Hawaii, for example, grows very small amounts of yellow Caturra.

Catuai is a variety artificially hybridized from Caturra and Mundo Novo. Catuai has good resistance to natural disasters, especially wind and rain.

Catuai trees are relatively short, and compared with other coffee trees their fruits grow more firmly and are not easy to pick. The fruits come in both red and yellow varieties. To date no superior flavor has been found in the yellow fruits compared with the red. In fact, some cuppers have found that although certain yellow-fruit coffees have good acidity, the cleanliness of the mouthfeel is worse than that of red fruits.

Catuai was cultivated in Brazil and is now also commonly planted in Central America.

Colombia Santa Rita Special Reserve

Country: Colombia

Region: Antioquia Department

Altitude: 1600-2100 meters

Processing method: Washed

Santa Rita Estate is located in Antioquia Department, Colombia, in a micro-production region adjacent to the Andes Mountains. This quality coffee is produced collaboratively by 9 nearby farms. These 9 farms still use traditional methods to process coffee: hand-picking the cherries, then applying traditional washed processing, with the processed beans laid out on racks to sun-dry. The environment around the Andes provides this growing region with fertile volcanic soil and unique water resources.

The main variety of Colombian coffee is Coffea arabica. The plant is a small tree or large shrub, 5-8 meters tall, usually with multiple branches at the base; old branches are grayish-white with swollen nodes, and young branches are hairless and flattened. The leaves are thin and leathery, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, 6-14 cm long and 3.5-5 cm wide, with a long gradual tip 10-15 mm long, a base that is wedge-shaped or slightly blunt, rarely circular, entire or shallowly wavy, hairless on both surfaces, with or without small pores in the vein axils on the underside; the midrib is prominent on both leaf surfaces, with 7-13 lateral veins per side; the petiole is 8-15 mm long; the stipules are broadly triangular, with conical long tips or awn tips at the apex of upper young branches, often with abrupt tips at the apex of old branches, 3-6 mm long. Several cymes cluster in the leaf axils, each inflorescence with 2-5 flowers, without peduncles or with very short ones; the flowers are fragrant, with pedicels 0.5-1 mm long; the bracts are mostly fused at the base, of two types, with 2 broadly triangular and nearly equal in length and width, and 2 lanceolate, twice as long as wide and leaf-like; the calyx is tube-shaped, 2.5-3 mm long, with a truncate calyx limb or with 5 small teeth; the corolla is white, its length varying by variety, generally 10-18 mm long, often 5-lobed at the apex, rarely 4- or 6-lobed, with lobes often longer than the corolla tube and blunt tips; the anthers extend beyond the corolla tube, 6-8 mm long; the style is 12-14 mm long, with a 2-lobed stigma 3-4 mm long. The ripe berry is broadly elliptical and red, 12-16 mm long and 10-12 mm in diameter, with a hard, membranous exocarp and a fleshy, sweet mesocarp; the seed is convex at the back, flat in front, with a longitudinal groove, 8-10 mm long and 5-7 mm in diameter. Flowering period is March-April.

[Colombia Santa Rita] (Washed, Medium-Dark Roast) - sugarcane, clean, medium body. Santa Rita Estate is located in Antioquia Department, Colombia, and uses traditional methods to process coffee: hand-picking the cherries, then applying traditional washed processing, with the processed beans laid out on racks to sun-dry. The environment around the Andes provides this growing region with fertile volcanic soil and unique water resources.

Growing coffee also requires sunlight and appropriate shade, with planting best suited to fertile land or volcanic ash soil. Coffee-producing regions are therefore widely distributed across South America, Central America, the West Indies, Asia, Africa, Arabia, the South Pacific and Oceania. Countries such as Ethiopia and Tanzania in Africa; Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica in Central and South America; and Vietnam and Indonesia in Southeast Asia are all major coffee-producing regions. In South America, Brazil's production accounts for 30-50% of world total, while Colombia accounts for 10-20%.

Colombia

Population: 47,073,000

Colombia has well-defined growing regions and produces diverse, impressive coffees. Whether you are looking for a round, heavy mouthfeel or refreshing, fruity flavors (or something in between), the answer is most likely Colombian beans. Colombia is divided by geographical region, and it is not difficult to see that local coffees share many common characteristics; if you like coffee from one region you will likely like coffee from the others as well. Coffee trees in Colombia get two harvests each year - the main harvest and the second harvest, locally called "mitaca."

CAUCA

Cauca is most famous for its coffee cultivation around Inza and the Meseta de Popayan near Popayán city. The high-altitude plateau provides favorable growing conditions, lying close to the equator and ringed by mountains that shield the coffee from Pacific humidity and southern trade winds, creating a very stable climate year-round. The region's coffee also benefits from significant volcanic soil. Historically there is a single rainy season, from October to December each year.

Altitude: 1,700-2,100m

Harvest: March-June (main crop), November-December (mitaca crop)

TOLIMA

Tolima was one of the strongholds of Colombia's notorious rebel organization FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) until the group recently lost control. Tolima has suffered from fighting in recent years, making access difficult. Quality coffee from this region comes from smallholders farming very small micro-plots and exported through cooperatives.

Altitude: 1,200-1,900m

Harvest: March-June (main crop), October-December (mitaca crop)

Varieties: 9% Typica, 74% Caturra, 17% Castillo

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To get to know the Colombian profile, FrontStreet Coffee suggests the washed Huila beans, roasted medium-dark to bring out the sweet aromas of dark chocolate and nuts, a moderate crema and a full body. It works for pour-over and French press, and also for moka pot and espresso machine extraction, whether you are making an Americano or a latte.

For a more modern, fruit-forward take on Colombia, the FrontStreet Finca La Divisa Sidra, transliterated as "Xizhua," is processed with anaerobic natural fermentation, which transforms the coffee into richer tropical-fruit aromatics. Roasted medium-light, it delivers complex, intense notes of passion fruit, grape, apricot and dried fruit as pour-over, cold brew, drip bag or moka pot.

And for anyone with a home espresso machine or moka pot, FrontStreet Coffee strongly recommends the FrontStreet Specialty Blend, an espresso blend designed for cafés. It combines the creamy, nutty character of Brazilian coffee with the dark chocolate bittersweetness of Colombian coffee, pulling a fine golden crema and making a rich, smooth latte that is very friendly to beginners - and a fine base for Americano, cappuccino and mocha.