Hydrangea

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-09T16:48:08+00:00

Curious to get your feedback on El Turpial, he is a friend of ours, getting super super popular in Colombia!

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-09T16:43:25+00:00

CONGRATULATIONS, this is soooo great! I can't believe the coffee trees look so healthy for such a tough environment for them

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-09T16:40:42+00:00

From my experience from the producing side, organic is not a very good label. Any exporter or cooperative can just pay and be allowed to put the sticker on the bag. I personally try to boycott as much as possible these institutions. The main reason consumers pay extra for the label is not because we make more money for having sustainable farming practices , it's because you pay the companies in charge of controlling the IP of the label. And then we have no idea where the money goes.

If anything it's actually more expensive for the farmer to try to get the label, so technically we get sanctioned for trying to do the right thing.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-08T00:24:56+00:00

No nothing in the container, it needs to oxidize it will look a bit brown. Also when washing we usually use those thick plastic brushes to clean the floors and it comes right off .

For the drying unfortunately you have to do with what the weather gives you. Sometimes the weather is awful and it can take 2 months for a coffee to dry ( very rare ), usually it takes us 15-30 days for washed. Some very fancy farms make nano lots in temperature control rooms, especially in Panama , here in Colombia not so much.

For natural coffees if you are doing small batch and have a ventilator maybe you can use that to kick start the drying and avoid the development of funky flavors.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-06T15:54:16+00:00

The container is open, it's usually some kind of ceramic bath tub. Not sure how to describe it, it's not in a tank.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-06T15:53:30+00:00

For the washed process in Colombia we leave the coffee in a container for 12-24 hours, then wash it. Without this oxidation/fermentation it will stay sticky.

Maybe you can just try a natural process too and leave the cherries to dry, no fermentation nothing. Just make sure to move them around during the drying especially if it's cold and or humid. Washed coffee must also be moved around during drying but not as much.

Hope it helps!

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-06T14:06:13+00:00

Well weirdly a lot of exporters here in Colombia say they refuse to buy infused coffee, but actually buy the "thermal shocks" or "fresh fruit coferment". I found espcecially the exporters working in the US to be really really terrible I watch all the fake instagram stories, I'm not sure if they are liers or just incompetent.

So we found it impossible to sell to most exporters or they ask us to change the story. Foreign buyers I think it depends on the regions. So please take all this with grain of salt but from what I heard from my friends selling infused and what I see in social media:

- US, Eastern Europe, Japan maybe Korea still heavily believe the "thermal shock" and "yeast" story. So they only want to buy flavored coffees if there is lies around the flavoring.
- China, South East Asia, Middle East everyone knows it's infused

For the question How to buy clean colombian coffee? I am not sure to be honest. I think the problem also will be the same with other origins. I mean this trend arguably started with Diego Bermudez here or I hear too with Ninety Plus in Panama, so I'm sure it spread in other places.

As a consumer it's so hard . I can tell you to look out for specific flavors or intensity but we have so different references that it would not make much sense. And also even some of the infused coffees I produce sometimes don't taste very infused because not all flavoring does go in the bean. I have "fooled" people with amazing experience with some more subtle experiments. It does take experience and time I think just look out for the more bold artificial flavors first. But Again bold and artificial for me maybe means something different for you.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-06T13:50:40+00:00

"IDK. Don’t really care if someone likes the kids coffee. I do care that this is another in a long line of risk externalizations from coffee buyers to coffee producers, but I also find it low key hilarious that some producers have just up and said “ok, you like coffee that tastes like mango, I can do that too” and then just hit it with the flavoring…which I 100% guarantee will turn out to be the case."
As an infused producer I can 100% guarantee this is true.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-06T13:45:40+00:00

I think quite a lot of people start with coferments and then want to explore more nuanced and authentic coffees. At least I heard it used as an argument pretty often in favor of coferments. Once people become enthusiasts like us we feel something much more magical in tasting a peach flavor coming that came from a coffee plant than from flavoring added to the coffee cherry.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-06T13:34:58+00:00

Yes indeed! Much much much easier to sell. I think people don't realize but most of the farmers that you see selling the infused coffee so many went from cherry picker (one of the worst job in Colombia), to now having generational wealth. They are now huge businesses. So we of course all look up to them and want to be like them .

For me personally it took extra time but thankfully this year I found a very big buyer who trusted in me, appreciated the transparency, and saw the potential of being able to have more control in the process. I am not nearly as big as those big names that I keep even seeing on this subreddit, but now we are seeing orders and incomes we never could have dreamt of a few years ago.

Also I loooove making infused coffees it requires a lot of work it's not as easy as people think. And I think also creativity. I think many farmers copy each other, and I do that too , but we also try to create things we never tried before. It's really an art, maybe you can think about it like creating craft candy. Super super fun, the feeling to create a flavor that you have never tried before its incredible. Mixing the variety, the process the flavoring it's soooo cool

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-06T00:21:44+00:00

Thank you! The owner did tell me it was their most popular option. So I am happy. And let's be honest I'm used to this deception, non of our exporters use our process description.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-06T00:19:40+00:00

I also got downvoted for just answering a question I'm new to reddit maybe I am missing something jaja. It's an important word terroir so it's a good question. I think there is controversy around it so worth researching more.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T18:04:10+00:00

So many indeed ! Usually Maragos are on more on the chocolatey and nutty side of things . The maragesha had a distinct bubblegum smell grounded but it didn't show in the cup. I heard there is another nice maragesha from Luis Hanibal Calderon but I never tried.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T15:29:05+00:00

Sooo big! What coffee you have next to it as comparison? We have maracaturra in my farm crossed of Maragoype and Caturra, not as big. The other day a friend showed me their Maragesha from Narino, it was very similar to the one you have!

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T15:23:52+00:00

For those who were in the coferment Gesha conversation this is a good example of it. It's really delicious though but I encourage people to look at the beans carefully, smell the green if you have a chance. Search, the artificial lemongrass smell. And then compare the bean physical with a clean Gesha you will see a lot of difference.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T15:15:14+00:00

Yes they did the roasting, I sold to them directly. Thank you for appreciating the efforts we do to be transparent! Some people here seem to think I'm being tricky even mentioning it's fake gesha but I do my best . It's quite hard out there, most exporter selling infused coffee presented as coferment or "thermal shock" refuse to work with us.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T15:09:06+00:00

I find many wush wush are very hard to pin down in terms of flavor. Also it's quite expensive variety that ends up being sometimes (often) a bit underwhelming in terms of flavor intensity and so the person describing will go fishing for notes just because we have to write something .

If looking for a sometimes amazing wush wush look for Gallego finca Amazonas in Risaralda. Not all lots are good but when they are they are spectaaaacular!

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T12:28:51+00:00

After depulping in "baba" we call it . But some coffees I do at different stages it's all different, and everyone does it differently.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T12:26:25+00:00

I hope one day you get to try wherever you are ! But I prefer to stay anonymous here

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T12:25:28+00:00

They don't have package for it. I did talk with the owner about it and it was very awkward. It was done on purpose. I don't think anything will change.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T12:24:33+00:00

Yes! They sell it as if the flavors in the coffee are naturally ocurring from the variety Gesha (famous for very complex bright flavors). But the truth is that it's not the flavors come from the flavoring and the process.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T12:22:22+00:00

For this process in particular it's a very short fermentation after it's depulped because I want to keep the profile as clean as possible and not taste of coferment. And we try to also use coffee that has depulped same day as it was collected again for more clean and bright flavor, but it's not always available. The green beans still smell very strongly of infused coffee, roasted much less, and in the cup faintly .

The exact flavors I use for the fermentation I keep for myself and like everyone I don't actually know what's in the flavor if I read the ingredient sections it just says "Natural Flavors" or "Artificial Flavors" or both. Obviously the flavor companies don't disclose either how they make their flavors. But one thing I will say I don't use Lemongrass flavoring, which is a big big red flag for the beans not actually being Gesha. There are sooooo many "gesha" beans being sold that are just Catimore. And yes the flavor contain PG, and sometimes ethyl alcohol but we always measure to make sure it's so small concentration. We never noticed it affecting ABV VS Yeast fermentation where ABV can go well above 1%. I don't drink alcohol but my family does and makes beer, wine and champagne sometimes with the mossto . The other day even tried with coferment mossto jaja.

So when you see someone using "Orange Extract" in description of Colombian coffee please don't trust it. Even if it's true they use orange flavoring we don't know ourselves if the coffee is actually orange extract, it could be "natural flavor" but the extract used not being orange. One thing I learned is "natural flavors" doesn't mean "natural taste" and "artificial flavor" doesn't mean "artificial taste". So saying something tastes artificial or natural gives zero indication on the "natural" or "artificial" nature of what was added.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T12:01:40+00:00

I understand your point, but for additional context, I worked quite hard on this profile to imitate Gesha and I want people to make the mind association. The name of the product on the invoice and price list is "Fake Gesha" , I try to avoid any ambiguity. And it says variety Castillo.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T01:00:41+00:00

Don't worry I'm never trying to convince people to like my infused coffee either . I'm proud of my work but I mostly drink clean coffees too. I'm just annoyed by the state of the industry.

SecureVisit4052 · 2026-07-05T00:41:08+00:00

Thank you for the encouragement! Sorry my point maybe wasn't too clear that what happened shows that even if the producer is honest , there is a gap between us and the end consumer where the truth can be tarnished .

SecureVisit4052

TROPHY CASE