El Sapo, Colombia

Cranberries, Sweet Cherries, Currants

Koppi on El Sapo: “The first time we had coffee form El Sapo was in 2018. The winning lot of the 2018 Tarqui competition came from Maria Berlinda Nuñez, known as Berlinda, and her family Trujillo. They have a small 4 hectare farm in El Triunfo, in the mountains of Tarqui, named El Sapo. The farm is found at 1800 meters above sea level and it stretches up to just under 2000. Berlinda’s husband inherited El Sapo back in 1988. At the time they only grew beans and peas. They were told the climate was too cold to plant coffee, but decided to try with 1000 caturra trees to see if it would work. Berlinda also gave land to each of her children to plant coffee. At El Sapo they grow Caturra and Variedad Colombia. It was the first time they had competed, after hearing about it on the radio and being encouraged to enter by Ferney Cruz and Yaved Guarnizo – whom both are producers that we are working with. Berlinda walked 4 hours to get to the competition ceremony, despite having just had an operation. She was there with 9 family members and said she wouldn’t miss it for the world. Since then the family have placed in the top in the past two Best of Tarqui competitions.

The process:
After the cherries are collected they leave them for 12 hours. The coffee is de-pulped and put in bags to ferment for another 32 hours. After the fermentation they wash it four times until completely clean. The coffee was then taken by horse (they don’t have a car) to a nearby town for drying under a roof with good airflow and ventilation. They stir the coffee every 2 hours, and the drying takes 20-25 days depending on the weather.”