El Paraiso – Colombia [Filter]

Farm Finca El Paraiso (Diego Bermudez)
Varietal Castillo
Process Thermal shock, specialised fermentation, washed
Altitude 1750 m.a.s.l

This is a highly specialised process coffee which results in a unique flavour profile. The mastermind behind this coffee is Diego Bermudez who process the coffee in his microlab in Colombia.

Processing is as follows:

• The cherries received are separated by density (floating) and size (filtering out the underdeveloped/green cherries) followed by a washing process which uses filtered water (traditional filtering system, a reverse osmosis filter and a UV-C filter).
• Then he depulps the coffee and removes the mucilage with the help of a demucilager.
• The mucilage and a part of the pulp are put in a fermentation tank in the lab. Here the mix is put to ferment using a carefully selected mix of microorganisms responsible for the specific flavor of each profile. The fermentation process of the culture medium as he calls the liquid, is carefully monitored, and controlled. In the tank, the flavors are created that give Diego’s coffees their distinct identity.
• When the fermentation process is completed, the culture medium is added to a new lot of freshly depulped and demucilaged coffee, in a stainless-steel high-pressure bioreactor (which capacity is 300- 800kg) Diego calls this process the fixing process. The fermented culture medium is exposed to the porous wet coffee beans. Under the pressure of several bars, the flavors get absorbed by the beans. The temperature is controlled by adjusting the pressure. So, no heating or cooling system is necessary. The tanks have valves they open to take samples and keep track of the ongoing process.