Elkin Guzman is the leading pioneer in the world of coffee producers.
Hailing from Pitalito, this extremely intelligent young farmer is using new technologies in amazing ways to improve his techniques in terms of cultivation, harvest, and process. The scrutiny and attention to detail that Elkin maintains are undoubtedly paying off as he is now producing some of the most consistently impressive coffees we have ever seen come out of Colombia. His secret? Mentor Arnfulo Leguizamo.
Elkin realized early on this year that on average, the sugar content of the Castillo cherries were 24 Brix degrees once fully ripened. After 15 days, another sugar content sample revealed a reading of about 18 Brix — the coffee holds its sweetness. The cherries were left for a total of 3 weeks to dry on the trees, then harvested, hand sorted, and processed.
The variety of Castillo is a perfect candidate for tree-dried natural process for 2 main reasons:
1) In general, Castillo has a longer maturation time than other varieties and can be difficult to harvest for washed processing as the color does not represent internal ripeness.
2) As a hybrid, Castillo cherries have the ability to remain on the tree for a much longer period of time without falling to the ground when compared to other varieties.
For this particular lot, coffee was harvested only during the morning, when they were reading 23 to 25 Brix degrees. Floaters are removed, and coffee hand-sorted again after floating. The cherry was dried on the raised beds for 25 to 30 days.
For more information on Colombian coffees visit our Colombia origin page.
