Don’t be thrown off by the fact this farm’s name is also the capital of Argentina — this coffee comes to you from the Huila department of Colombia.
Coffee from Huila is among the most interesting to come out of Colombia. The incredibly varied geography and microclimates leads to diverse and complex flavours even between farms in the same region.
Colombia is also unusual in the coffee world for having two alternating harvest seasons each year: the main harvest and a smaller mitaca harvest. Within this pattern the geography can mean farms 100km apart may be in completely different harvest patterns.
UK cafe and roaster Workshop have written about visiting Huila last year.
The farmer
Alberto (or Beto) Narvaez is a producer from Bruselas in Huila, working with a cooperative in Bruselas called Andino (Andes).
Beto has been working on with coffee since he was a teenager, when he finished school he went onto picking and working on other peoples farms. He saved his money and was later able to buy his own lot.
Beto also grows guavas, bananas and passionfruit on the farm, which is shaded by Guamo and Jacaranda trees.
Castillo
You’ll notice a different varietal included in the crop from this farm: Castillo. This is a more disease-resistant and higher-producing coffee plant created as a hybrid of Caturra and Timor Hybrid varietals, but which remains similar enough to Caturra to have a the same flavour profile.
