The current seasonal line-up of our Burning Cliff seasonal blend consists of a a natural processed Yellow Bourbon variety from Fazendinha farm in Brazil blended with a fully washed Caturra from La Virgen farm in Colombia. Let's explore a bit more the stories behind each coffee.
Fazendinha Farm, Brazil
The farm is run by Emilio Raimundo Faria and his wife Rosana who purchased 50 hectares back in 2013. They didn't have a lot of resources, but the farmer who owned the land allowed them to put their house and car as a security deposit, and pay off the farm over 3 years.
The farm was already planted with Sarchimor trees, and their first harvest was good. They earned enough to make their first payment on the land and the future looked bright. However, the very next harvest was disastrous in terms of quality and volume and they didn't earn enough to make the repayment on the loan. They lost nearly everything including their house and car and all but 16 hectares to the original owner.
Starting from zero, the couple took a bold decision. they tore out the Sarchimor trees and planted Yellow Bourbon trees. They hoped this variety would take well to their soil, and deliver the quality they needed to earn a decent price for their coffee. The following years were tough for Emilio and Rosana supporting their three kids whilst waiting for their Yellow Bourbon trees to grow.
Their first major harvest was in 2017 and a neighbour convinced a reluctant Emilio to take a sample to Cafebras, an exporter with a speciality program. Emilio was extremely busy but found the time to drop off a sample.
Each year Cafebras run a quality competition. All lots scoring 84 and above by their quality team are entered into a special cupping judged by five eminent cuppers from Brazil. In 2017, Emilio and Rosana's was the top lot with a score of 90.25!
Planting Yellow bourbon has been transformative for Emilio, Rosana and their family. They have begun building a new home and now live in a smaller part of it while they finish construction.
For this coffee, the cherries were selectively picked to process only the ripest cherries.
Emilio and Rosana's coffees are naturally processed, meaning they are dried whole. They have just started doing some cherry fermentation, allowing the cherry some hours before being picked to ferment before being dried. This year they have built raised drying beds to improve the coffee processing.
La Virgen Farm, Colombia
Situated at altitudes between 1850 - 2100 MASL, La Virgen is a farm located in the municipality Concordia in Antioquia. This lot is a fully washed Caturra. The farm is owned by Jaime Ariza, but the farm practices and processing is managed by his friend Juan Saldarriaga. Juan is a coffee producer with two farms of his own but he also works with other producers from the area. Many of them are young farmers that are eager to prove that the Antioquia region produce more than just chocolaty and heavy bodied coffees. We fully agree and think that this coffee is proof of that!
The coffee cherries are hand picked selectively to only collect the ripest cherries.
After cherry selection the cherries are soaked in water and the floaters removed before they go in to production. The coffee cherries are then pulped in a traditional disc pulper. Afterwards they are dry fermented for 24 hours with an intermediate rinse in clean water before being transferred to raised beds for drying under shade for 22 days.
