Central Ninth
dark chocolate | caramel | red fruit
Colombia La Gioconda
- Tasting Notes: green apple | apricot | dulce de leche
- Roast Level: light
- Producer: Carolina Ramirez
- Farm: San Antonio
- Region: Andes, Antioquia
- Process: Semi Washed
- Elevation: 1850 MASL
- Variety: Castillo
- Harvest: 2022
- About this Coffee: As a member of the Unblended Ventola Institute (UVI), Carolina Ramirez receives support to create her own coffee project. UVI achieves this by endorsing their coffee-producing members with US-based coffee roasters, providing guidance on fermentation processes, and aiding them in generating marketing materials that enhance the value of their products. After obtaining her law degree in Medellin, Carolina returned to Andes to live with her parents on their farm, San Antonio. It was there that she discovered her passion for cultivating specialty coffee. Currently, Carolina and her mother manage the coffee selection and processing operations in the farm. We had the opportunity to speak with Carolina over Zoom, where she shared the story behind this coffee’s processing method. She mentioned that during a weekend of experimentation with coffee fermentation, one of the farm workers mistook a barrel with coffee cherries and believed the coffee needed to be depulped. In the end, it turned out to be a happy accident, as the coffee possessed a delightful balance of aromas and flavors. Carolina decided to call her coffee La Gioconda, after the Mona Lisa, a well known painting that has long been the subject of curiosity and speculation surrounding the identity of its subject. Since her coffee did not undergo either the washed or honey processing method, Carolina believed the name was fitting. The semi-washed method can be ambiguous, as there is no uniform definition for it, and the specific method can vary across different regions. In the cup we taste green apple, apricot, and dulce de leche.