El Naranjalito, Colombia

This washed Castillo lot is sourced from woman farmer Imelda Camacho's farm El Naranjalito. Imelda's 5ha farm is located in the community of Payacal in La Mesa, Cundinamarca.

This coffee uses a traditional washed process. Ripe coffee cherries are selected and then pulped to remove the fruit. The coffee is then fermented for 48 hours hours to break down the sugary mucilage and improve the cup. After fermentation the coffee is washed thoroughly to remove the mucilage and then dried in parchment in a marquesina (a specialised drying marquee or greenhouse) for 15 days.
Once the coffee has reached the optimal moisture content it is rested, before being transported to the dry mill for hulling, sorting and grading.

History of Coffee in Colombia:

As with many coffee origins, it is believed that coffee was first brought to Colombia by priests, arriving, perhaps, within a decade or two after coffee first came to the Americas via the Caribbean in the first half of the 17th century. It was likely a garden crop grown for local consumption and barter for decades. Unlike other coffee regions, we have the story of a priest named Francisco Romero, who could be called the father of commercial coffee cultivation in Colombia. The folkloric tale goes that in the early 1800’s, Father Francisco, hearing confessions in the north eastern town of Salazar de la Palmas, assigned planting coffee to his parishioners as penance for their sins. The Archbishop of Colombia heard about this and ordered all priests to adopt the practice. Commercial production of coffee expanded quickly, moving into regions where the growing conditions were ideal.