This week, we have 3 phenomenal Colombian microlots from our favorite producer group, LaREB. LaREB(La Real Expedición Botánica) is a collective of coffee producers and professionals united by a common goal: pursuing quality and consistency on the producing side while building long term partnerships with discerning roasters who will do those coffees justice in the final product for the consumer side. Everyone we have been in contact with at LaREB shows a clear passion and love for the craft of specialty coffee and it's made clear, both in the quality of green, and in the quality of their roasted coffee. Luis Edgar Camacho, Lorena Pinzon, and Yoiner Mosquera's coffees stood out to us in the most recent batch of samples from LaREB for a variety of reasons, quality being a unifying factor between them.
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Yoiner Mosquera Gesha Natural:
Yoiner's family farm is entrenched in a deep history and lore, having originally been founded by his grandfather in 1949 upon fleeing political violence in his hometown. Yoiner's grandfather ultimately settled in Palestina and took advantage of a farming incentive program, offering financing for productive plots for 5 years of settling. Being a third-generation descendant of coffee farmers in Huila, Yoiner was no stranger to the cultivation of coffee growing up. However, his career path ended up going a bit differently than most. He became an accountant at Banco Agrario, managing finance grants to smallholder producers. Yoiner eventually grew tired of participating in the injustice of loan program, watching smallholder producer become pigeonholed into growing high-yield, low-quality varietals that set them up for a meager living at best. When his father passed away, he inherited his family's farm and began to takeover production, introducing intense fermentation protocols and selling cherries to the highest bidder. Chasing these types of clients can offer a great initial payment, but often carries long term financial risk as relationships aren't developed with any real level of trust or consistency. After taking a big hit when a buyer wallked out of a large deal at the last second, forcing him to sell cherry at a loss, Yoiner began to look for other more sustainable options. When LaREB approached him, their transparency and trust-focused business model really appealed to him. The folks at LaREB also encouraged him to produce cleaner fermentations and move away from the aggressively fermented approach he had previously been taking, and this has paid dividends in cup quality, with carefully controlled extended washed processing for his pink bourbon, and often clean washed processing for his gesha. That brings us to this latest fermentation expiriment, a naturally processed gesha with minimal intervention, carefully monitored drying and a resulting cup profile reminiscent of classic Ethiopian naturals. This process began with overripe picking, followed by a short 12hr open-air drying in cherry, then a 60 hour anaerobic phase in a sealed container. After this, the cherries were taken to a greenhouse with raised beds to dry for 20 days. In the cup we find a beautifully layered strawberry and raspberry duo, with meyer lemon citric acidity zipping through the middle. As it cools, earl grey tea florals and body become prominent, with an abundance of floral character and a zingy lime finish.
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Luis Edgar Camacho Fragrancia Washed:
Luis Edgar Camacho's farm La Palma sits at 1,720masl in Palestina, Colombia. Luis originally began exporting through Caravella in 2014, but began working with LaREB through the recommendation of his friend Lizardo Herrera. This lot originally came to us marked as "Bourbon," drawing an immediate purchase decision on the cupping table as it leapt up from the rest with floral complexity and intense aromatics. As the release drew closer and we began test roasting this one, our friends and fellow LaREB fans at Scenery Coffee in the UK reached out to let us know they had sent some green beans to the RD2 Vision Lab for genetic testing. The coffee came back as "Fragrancia," a crossbreed of Sidra x Catimor. While I am typically highly skeptical of Sidra due to the frequency of the infamous "onion note," this hybridizing seems to have fully tamed the allium quality of its ancestry and truly highlighted the intense florality and acidity. In the cup, we find a great deal of complex berry notes, ranging from blueberry to raspberry with many in between. All throughout the cup, there is a loud and expressive orange blossom floral that absolutely slaps you in the face, intense and aggressive aromatics highlight and elevate structured florals of jasmine, magnolia, and bergamot.
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Lorena Pinzon Pink Bourbon Washed:
The final coffee of this release comes from a producer who is brand-new to LaREB, and we are still awaiting some more information and backstory about her. For now, we can say with certainty that this pink bourbon absolutely floored us on the cupping table and was yet another certified LaREB banger. With 48 hours of held in cherry fermentation prior to an additional 48 hours in mucilage underwater, this one's got the classic Palestina PB vibe to it. with tropical dragon fruit notes upfront, followed by classic pink lemonade acidity, and a slightly heavier body that carries honeysuckle and jasmine florals long into the finish. As it cools, the pink lemonade slowly transitions to a darker blood orange acidity.
