Dear subscriber,
This month you have the opportunity to taste three very different and delicious coffees from our dear friends Elias Roa and Bellanid Sanchez, the owners of Finca Tamana in Colombia.
It is no secret that we have been working very closely together since 2012 to improve their farm, coffee, processing, drying, and logistics. Since the start of our relationship, when they only produced two different cultivars (Variedad Colombia and Caturra), we have planted many new cultivars and waited patiently for the trees to grow and produce coffee. It normally takes about 6-10 years from when you start with a handful of coffee seeds until you have a solid production of good-tasting coffee.
Also, you never know if the seeds you have will be suitable for the particular farm and environment. Some cultivars will thrive and taste good while others will fail. Fortunately, we have found several great-tasting and distinct cultivars that suit the microclimate at Finca Tamana, and now you are able to enjoy the fruits of our labour by tasting three very different coffees.
Next month we will also be sending three different cultivars from Finca Tamana, but until then I hope you will enjoy this month’s coffees.
If you have not seen it already, I highly recommend watching the short documentaries we have made from this farm on our YouTube channel: "Transforming a Coffee Farm: 13 Years of Collaboration with Tim Wendelboe at Finca Tamana"
Variedad Colombia (1st & 4th bag)
When Elias and his wife Bellanid bought Finca Tamana in 2011, most of the farm was planted with the two cultivars Caturra and Variedad Colombia. Since then, the Caturra trees have been attacked by leaf rust almost every year, and the quality and production have therefore been somewhat inconsistent. The Variedad Colombia is resistant to leaf rust and because of that it has consistently tasted better compared to the Caturra over the years.
Many buyers are sceptical about the Variedad Colombia cultivar as it tends to be more herbal in the aftertaste than the traditional Caturra. Apart from that, they do taste very similar (after all, Caturra was used in order to develop the Variedad Colombia hybrid by cross-pollinating Caturra with the Timor Hybrid).
However, we have found that when the coffee cherries are picked very ripe at a purple colour, the herbal flavours tend to be more in the background and you will get more fruity characteristics in the cup. The meticulous picking and sorting protocols at Finca Tamana make this coffee very sweet, with subtle ripe red fruit flavours. The coffee has a recognisable clean and smooth cup profile, which is a result of the thorough processing and drying techniques we have developed together with Elias and Bellanid over the years.
In order to make sure we get the very best coffees from Tamana each year, I taste through all the individual pickings of each cultivar and select the very best ones. Since they produce many small batches of Variedad Colombia, it means that I normally select between 10-15 pickings that are blended into 2-3 different lots depending on picking dates, moisture content, quality, and cup profile.
It has taken many years of work to gradually raise the quality of these coffees, but I believe we have managed to take their “regular” coffee to a new level that is consistently sweet and clean, and has a characteristic flavour profile that reflects the cultivar and region this coffee is from.
Papayo (2nd & 5th bag)
Elias got these “Papayo” seeds from his neighbour in Acevedo and planted the seeds at Finca Tamana some years ago. I have been tasting this coffee for several years now and it has gradually improved in quality.
This year it is the best version we have tried of this coffee. It has a much more distinct cup with intense fruity flavours. I personally believe this is a kind of Pacamara coffee, as the flavour profile reminds me of Pacamara and the beans are slightly larger than the other coffees from this farm, but we have yet to test the genetics of this coffee. I find it to have a slight herbal undertone with intense tropical and red fruit flavours.
SL28 & Geisha (3rd & 6th bag)
This coffee is what we call a field blend of the two cultivars Geisha and SL28. Elias and Bellanid have been producing small amounts of Geisha and SL28 in different areas on the farm for a while now and although the coffees have been nice, the aromatics have been quite subtle and not as intense as we have wanted them to be. I suspect it is due to the fact that their coffee does not grow under a shade canopy (I have been asking Elias to plant shade trees for many years, which he is now finally doing).
About five years ago, Elias decided to plant some SL28 along with seeds from his best Geisha trees in a part of the farm that already had some shade trees growing. This is the first year we are getting coffee from this part of the farm, and it has been tasting very good.
Normally we ask Elias and Bellanid to separate every picking by cultivar, but since the two cultivars are planted together in the same field and they are having difficulties getting enough pickers during the harvest, they decided to pick both cultivars together in order to save time. The result is a vibrant and delicate coffee with floral, citrus and tea-like notes mixed with some red fruits.
