Photo by Jasmine Chavez
Darabiel’s coffee is back on our menu for the fourth time, and we couldn’t be more excited to share this lot with you. Since 2021, we’ve been buying his coffee every year, and we plan to keep this going.
Darabiel’s farm is called Finca Pringamosas (named after a plant that he uses for ground cover) and it’s found in the municipality of Tarqui, in Huila, Colombia. And it’s absolutely beautiful:
Darabiel manages 1.5 hectares, and works closely with his family and neighbors to produce quality coffee while also taking care of the land they work and live on. This particular lot is made up of Caturra and Variedad Colombia, and once harvested, it’s put through a series of carefully monitored steps - including cherry floating, de-pulping, fermentation, and drying - to create this beautiful washed processed coffee which is servin notes of caramel, apples and apricot.
This parabolic dryer (the structure covered in plastic) is where Darabiel dries his coffee on top of raised beds.
The resulting quality that we all get to enjoy starts well before these processing steps, and can be seen in the many farm practices that Darabiel carries out months before harvest. This includes pruning and utilizing a water filtration system which uses bacteria and other organic materials to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from water. Thanks (but no thanks) to climate change, this region has been receiving less rainfall this year, which has resulted in a slight uptick in the presence of what’s called broca on his farm. Broca are tiny little bugs that burrow into coffee cherries and seeds to lay their eggs, which negatively affects yields and quality. A couple affected beans here and there might not be too bad, but if they get out of hand and are not controlled, broca can become a devastating problem. Darabiel is committed to organic farming practices, so instead of using chemicals, he’s opted to manually remove affected coffee cherries from his trees - an extremely tedious and labor intensive process.
With the goal of becoming more intentional and involved in the supply chains that we’re a part of, we’re grateful for the opportunity to be in contact with Darabiel via whatsapp. We launched this coffee on Thursday, and that same day he shared a couple photos of his upcoming harvest 🤩 Here's our fave:
