Finca La Praderita - Yeast Inoculated Field Blend - Huila, Colombia

Producer: Jose Cubillos - Finca La Praderita
Location: Santa Maria, Huila
Variety: Caturra, Catimor, Pink Bourbon
Process: Yeast-inoculated, "Cochada" fermentation gradient
Harvest: 2025
Importer: The Coffee Quest

Contract Price: $6.75 per pound

About Colombia: Colombian coffee producers are incredibly innovative. In response to decades devastating coffee rust disease, they developed high quality disesase resistant varietals like Colombia and Castillo. As the specialty coffee industry has evolved, they've been at the forefront inventing delicious new techniques for fermenting coffee, vastly expanding the range of flavors possible in the cup. Coffee from Colombia can't be easily generalized, but it's particularly famous for malic acidity (think apple & pear), big sweetness, and delicate florals on the aroma.

About Yeast Inoculation: YI is a secondary process that modifies the fermentation step. Wild yeasts are usually present during this step, but in this case producers introduce specific strains of yeast to the fermenting coffee to control flavor, sweetness, or mouthfeel. In our experience we've noticed it adds a lovely silkiness to the body of the coffee.

About Cochada: A regional technique currently unique to localities in Colombia. Throughout the week, freshly harvested and depulped beans are added to the fermentation tanks with previously harvested beans, with the entire batch eventually being harvested as one coffee lot. The result is one lot containing a "fermentation gradient," with the final product benefitting from the unique flavors found in increasing lengths of fermentation.