Colombia - Bruselas El Diviso (Espresso)

Tastes Like: Custard apple, pink guava, butterscotch

Alirio Muñoz and his wife Anayibe Ortiz come from coffee-producing families in southern Huila. Today, they oversee three farms with a total surface area of 14 hectares, with the help of their three children. Fortunately, the younger generation is following in the footsteps of their parents and ancestors by continuing to cultivate high-quality, high-altitude Colombian coffee.

He selects ripe cherry, harvests, and then holds the cherry for 28 hours. The cherry is then pulped and held for a further 36 to 72 hours in plastic containers. The coffee is then washed and dried for at least 20 days.

Across Fincas El Diviso, El Roble, and El Meson, the family grows Pink Bourbon, Bourbon Aji, Ombligon, Pacamara, and two small plots of Variedad Colombia and Caturra Chiroso—the last of which is overseen by youngest daughter Angelina, who is 17 going on 18. Esteven Santiago, who is 19, and 21-year-old Fabian Alirio work side by side with their parents, carrying out all the necessary farm chores during the non-harvest season such as fertilizing with organic compost, weeding, and stumping, as well as the constant, year-round harvesting of smaller fly crops. This consistent harvest has put parts of Huila high on the specialty coffee map for its continuous fresh crop availability.

During the peak harvest season, which begins in October, the family employs up to ten pickers—four of whom are family friends from the coffee-producing department of Nariño—who return year after year to the corregimiento of Bruselas to hand-select the cherry.

Besides coffee, the Muñoz-Ortiz family grows plantain, dry beans, and corn for sale on the local market and to supplement their workers' and their own diets. The post-collection processing is done at the main plot, where they ferment intact cherry as well as wet parchment—after it has been depulped—in plastic barrels. The drying system is a marquesina-style or covered, convertible greenhouse and is carefully monitored and raked, as the weather has been cooler than in previous years.

MUNICIPALITY: Bruselas - Huila
FARM: El Diviso
VARIETY: Pink Bourbon
PROCESSING: Washed
FARMER: Alirio Munoz