Gesha, Colombia – El Refugio 150gr

El Refugio has belonged to the Agudelo Uribe family since 2020. The family are passionate about this shared project to connect with nature and produce specialty coffee.

The farm has 7.5ha of coffee in exotic varietal like geisha, sidra bourbon and other Ethiopian varietie and the plants are around 2 years old. Before the Uribe family planted coffee, the land was given over to livestock and grass. However, when they decided to plant coffee, the family also planted a lot of native trees to create shade. This created an agroforest system that protects the coffee from harsh winds and erosion, as well as nurturing wildlife. These trees also help to fix nitrogen in the soil and add nutrients to the coffee plantation. Additionally, since the trees are all native species, they become a natural habitat and source of food for the native wildlife, especially birds.

All the coffee processed on the farm is fully washed. The process is takes place in an ‘Ecomill’; a machine which pulps the coffee and has a fermentation tank beneath the pulping machine. This is good for water management, as the water consumption is very low compared with other methods.

Cherries are received in the ‘Tolva’ (reception tank). They are floated and the impurities are removed, as well as the over or under ripe cherries. The coffee is pulped to remove the skin. Cherries and the mucilage are fermented for 24hrs. The coffee is then moved to the washing channels and the deteriorated mucilage is removed from the parchment. The channels enable grading the coffee, based on the density of the beans. The coffee parchment then is moved to parabolic driers until target moisture is reached (10.5%), before being stored in burlap bags ready to be taken to Siruma’s warehouse for final physical and quality assessment.