Don Gabriel

Over the mountain in La Sierra's neighbourhood, commune 8 of Medellín, there is El Tractor Farm, run by Don Gabriel Cortes. At 71, he has achieved great results with his red bourbon coffee, which recently won the best coffee cupped in Medellin award.
The coffee is grown in La Sierra, Medellin at 2,300 meters above sea level. Don Gabriel has been a farmer since he was a child however, like many in the mountains above the Aburrá Valley, Don Gabriel is a survivor. He came to La Sierra displaced from his farm in Vegachí by violence in the region more than 20 years ago, as a result of this he left everything and started a new chapter in his life growing his award-winning coffee on the outside skirts in Medellin.

Don Gabriel has a super strict cherry selection process on his farm, which we think is reflected really well in the cup! Once the cherries are picked he brings them to the Renacer processing centre. After screening, only the ripe cherries are allowed into the fermentation process.

This particular lot is a super special one which showcases an experimental 76-hour fermentation process (his first attempt at it too!). This quick lactic fermentation allows for the growth of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) under anaerobic conditions. Lactic fermentation in coffee processing can mean a lot of different things, but what they all do is create an Anaerobic environment for the coffee cherries (meaning keeping them somewhere without much Oxygen available). Normal fermentation in coffee cherries involves both Yeast and Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB), but yeast needs Oxygen to create new yeast cells, so an Anaerobic environment will encourage the LAB more than the yeast. In this Speedy Lactic process, the coffee cherries are kept warm, speeding up the process. The LAB creates Lactic Acid from sugars, and the PH level is measured to decide when the fermentation stage is complete. Often, at this point, the coffee would be washed or honey-processed, but in this particular case, it’s dried and allowed to go
through a Natural processing method.

There's an initial taste of tropical fruit juice when you try this coffee. Then there is a hint of fruit punch, before finishing with aromatic sweet cherries.