One of the many things we love about the coffee world is that sometimes what are initially perceived as mistakes can end up presenting unexpected opportunities. This unique coffee from La Celia, Risaralda, is a perfect example. As with most of our Colombian coffees, this lot was brought to us by our good friends at La Real Expedición Botánica (LaREB). This coffee though, was one of those ‘oops’ moments that ended up turning into a very tasty experiment.

From a sourcing philosophy, the work of LaREB falls right in line with our goal of transparency, quality, and direct relationships. We’ve been working with LaREB since Day 1, and it’s relationships like this that connect us to these very distinctive, one-off coffees. This single estate lot comes from Ana Mustafa’s operation in the La Celia municipality of Risaralda. This lot was grown at an elevation of 1500 MASL and has undergone natural processing and an anoxic fermentation regime. The cherries were picked over-ripe, and the plan was to rest the coffee in-husk for 7 days in an enclosed container before going in the greenhouses to dry for 15 days. During the resting process, however, something happened that caused this coffee to be overlooked and the resting ran considerably longer than the planned 7-day protocol. How much longer isn’t clear, but the result was a wildly funky and fruity coffee. While this coffee was unable to be used for its intended purpose, we were able to help them move the coffee, and we’re able to offer coffee that nobody else in the world has. A mistake became a win-win.

Due to the extremely limited quantity of this lot, this offering is only available to select customers. This funky mouth-party leads with the fruity sweetness of watermelon candy, delights with the pleasant body, texture and lightly tannic elements that remind us of orange wine and finishes with the deeply sweet/tart combo of cranberry jam. We hope you enjoy this very special release.

Salud!