Passiflora - Semi-Washed Passionfruit Co-ferment - Palestina, Colombia (Roasted 12/15)

Producer: Marlon Rojas - Finca La Reserva
Location: Palestine, Huila
Variety: Bourbon
Process: Semi-Washed, Passionfruit Co-Ferment
Harvest: 2025
Importer: Forest Coffees 

Contract Price: $14.06 per pound

About Colombia: Colombian coffee producers are incredibly innovative. In response to decades devastating coffee rust disease, they developed high quality disease 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 Co-Ferments: After harvest, all coffee is fermented for 24 to 72 hours to break down the mucilage layer surrounding the seed, mature the complex aromatics and flavors, and reduce the presence of bitter tannins. In a co-fermented coffee, this stage is modified with the introduction of fruits or spices with desireable and complimentary aromatics and flavors. Wild yeasts and bacteria on the surface of the fruit aid in the fermentation, leading to further complexity in cup.

Honey process coffees (also known as semi-washed) exist on a wide spectrum between washed and natural and have different names in different countries such as pulped-natural, semi-washed, or honey. Within honey process, there are also distinctions between white, yellow, red, and black honey, respective to increasing amounts of mucilage left on the coffee during drying, and reflecting resulting bean. The presence of mucilage on the coffee bean during fermentation results in fruitier, wilder, winey flavors.