Rodrigo Sánchez and his coffees from Finca La Loma have won many awards for the unique varieties and processing methods that he uses. It’s easy to see why he wins so many awards, his Sidra Cold Fermented Fully washed lot is to-die-for!

ABOUT THIS COFFEE

Rodrigo Sánchez purchased Finca La Loma in 2011. Since then, he’s been hard at work doing research on processes and varieties on the farm and he’s spent his years wisely. In 2017, coffees displaying the unique varieties and processes used at his other farm, Finca Monteblanco, won first place in the Yara Championship, a quality competition. He uses the same varieties and processes at Finca La Loma. He placed second the following year with another lot from Finca Monteblanco. In 2019, Rodrigo participated in the Roasters United competition and two of his coffees placed first and third.

HARVEST & POST-HARVEST

Rodrigo’s passion for research made this lot possible. It began in 2016 when he drew inspiration from wine making, where he saw that grapes fermented in cooler environments had more desirable floral and fruity notes. He began his experiments by freezing pulped coffee. The freezer halted fermentation entirely and killed the embryo, so the coffee aged very quickly. However, Rodrigo didn’t give up because he noticed that the profile had an inkling of the desirable fruity and floral notes and he knew he was on the right track. Rodrigo continued experimenting with different temperatures and also expanded the scope of his project to include Brix degrees (sugar content) and different coffee varieties until he found exactly the right combination.

Cherry is selectively handpicked and processed on the farm. Workers are trained to pick cherry at 25 Brix degrees or higher. Once picked, cherry is floated and visually sorted to remove any underripes or damaged cherry. Only the best cherry is pulped and processed using this method. Coffee is put in GrainPro bags. The sealed bags are placed in an industrial fridge to ferment at 10 to 14 degrees Celsius for 76 hours. The cold temperatures slow down microbial activity and allow fermentation to happen more slowly. Following fermentation, parchment is washed in clean water and laid in direct sunlight on parabolic beds. Parchment is dried in direct sunlight for 1 to 2 days before being moved to raised beds in the shade. Parchment is raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes about 20 to 25 days for parchment to dry.

ABOUT SIDRA

Sidra is a cross between Typica and Bourbon that was discovered in Ecuador. The exact origins of Sidra’s name are unclear, but many think it may be named after the drink, cider, because of its fruity and winey profile. Appearance-wise, Sidra looks similar to Bourbon with well-defined, sloping branches, good tertiary branches and green buds. Sidra is high yielding with a good seed size and superb quality potential.