Colombia Aponte Village

Story

A stalwart offering year after year, this macro-lot from the Aponte Village in Narino is intensely sweet in the cup, balanced by a tart, citric acidity. Processed in a unique way, this red-honey is partially dried before it is depulped, giving it a layered, fruited complexity and heavy tactile.

Aponte Village

The old colloquialism is that it takes a village to raise a child… It also takes a village to produce the macro-lot of honey processed goodness that is our Aponte Village. Aponte Village resides at a mountainous 2100m in the lush region of Nariño. Each year we work closely with our friend Pedro at Pergamino coffee to cup through single producer lots in order to build a large Aponte lot that we feel fits the best cup profile of the region. This year we decided to dig into a deeper level and cup each single producer lot that was flagged for us, getting detailed sensory details on each component. This allowed us to build our full container Aponte lot bit by bit… adding a fruity and wild lot here, and a clean and juicy lot there. Altogether we cupped through thirty-eight single producers lots, eighteen of which were selected to comprise our Aponte offering for this season. Here’s a full breakdown of the names of each producer and families contribution to our large lot - Ximena Martinez, Mery Martinez, Edmondo Ceron, Leodan Gomez, Juan Pajimuy, Edmundo Ceron, Emilio Chasoy, Luis Evelio Martinez, Arbey Dominguez, Ormaira Guerrero, Campo Elias Guerrero, Luz Mila Dominguez, Edumndo Ceron, Edison Adarme, Idebando Gomez, Zonia Janamejoy, Diego Fernando Santa Cruz, and Hideon Munoz. Throughout the season, we’ve cupped table after table of these lots, taking care to select only lots that cupped above an 86 on the SCA form, ensuring our macro-lot would arrive at our quality standards. We list the names of the producers to pass along full transparency info. All these producers are located wtihin the Juanambuú canyon, belonging to the indigenous community of the Inga. Their history spans back to the Inca Empire, who colonized the southern region of Colombia in the late XIV century, a bit before the Spanish came. The land here is communal, and its population is ruled by a “cabildo,” a group of elders that make sure that their ancestral laws and traditions are upheld.

The second reason is the way the coffee is processed. Usually, coffee in Colombia is fermented and washed after its picked and de-pulped. In this case, the coffee was dried before being washed. The intense fermentation process that occurs when coffee is dried without washing its mucilage (honey-like substance around the seed) leads to a cup profile of intense ripe red fruit, that reminds us of cherries and strawberries. This process is very delicate, and if done incorrectly or without the proper conditions can lead to vinegar notes and a terrible cup of coffee. Weather in this region is perfect for this type of drying, as the heavy and cold winds that cross the canyon permit an even and fast drying process of the coffee seed, even covered by its mucilage.