$13.75 per LB

Vanilla Toffe, Hibiscus, Cane Sugar, Red Apple

Producer: Hector Ramos

Location: Tarqui

Varietal: Colombia

Process: Washed

Elevation: 1900 masl

Vanilla Toffe, Hibiscus, Cane Sugar, Red Apple

Producer: Hector Ramos

Location: Tarqui

Varietal: Colombia

Process: Washed

Elevation: 1900 masl

Processing details:

Cherries are collected at peak ripeness and are left to ferment in cherry for 24 hours. For this lot, they were then manually de-pulped and left to dry ferment in sealed bags with mucilage for 120 hours. The seeds are then washed before being dried in a solar dryer for 25 days.

About Hector:

Hector Ramos is a member of an extended family of coffee growers located around the small hamlet of Ricabrisa, near Tarqui, in Huila. Semilla was first acquainted with this family in 2018 and was shocked to find that despite great altitude and climate, and a fairly consistent high cup score, most of the family sold their coffee in cherry or en verde (depulped, sold wet), with occasional sale in parchment to local buyers. Hector is no exception to this, although he and his family might possess the highest quality potential of all these growers due to their exceptional altitude and location. As the youngest son of a long-time coffee-growing family, Hector is the driving force towards change as his father, Juan, had exclusively sold his coffee not only commercially but en verde meaning they would harvest the cherries, depulp them, and sell them on the local market without drying. Our first lot from Hector was sold under his father’s name, but he’s since decided to step out of the shadow and sell his family’s lot under his name. As his neighbours in Ricabrisa have made steps into selling specialty via Semilla, Hector has become more interested in the subject and has sought to change the family’s trajectory. He’s become interested in cupping, travelling all the way to San Agustin to spend time at the Ortega-Gomez house learning how to do so, and is committed to transitioning the small parcel of the family farm that is his own towards international specialty only. Given where he’s coming from, Hector’s efforts to process his coffee to parchment have been grassroots, to say the least. He renovated and rebuilt a dilapidated dryer behind their house, and had to manually depulp these cherries (turning the blades by hand) as it’s been so rarely used. With the proceeds from the sale of this lot, Hector invested in a gas motor to run the depulper, allowing him to process much for quickly and efficiently.

This is the second coffee we have gotten from Semilla Coffee. Their attention to detail, quality, and livelihood for the farmers and producers is quickly becoming unmatched. They are on the ground in every project they support, and it shows.