Floral // Ripe Cherries // Cacao Nibs
This one's a bit special. 🌸
It opens with a bloom of florals — delicate, perfumed, the kind that make you stop mid-sip — before giving way to the deep, jammy sweetness of ripe cherries and a finish that lingers with the bittersweet edge of cacao nibs. It's complex, it's beautiful, and it's unlike anything else we've had from Colombia.
This comes from El Paraiso, Arturo Arango's farm in Barcelona, Quindío — sitting at 1,300–1,450m on volcanic ash soils, with a climate that swings between 16 and 28°C. Arturo and his team work with extraordinary precision, from selective hand-picking right through to the meticulous fermentation protocols carried out at Cofinet's La Pradera processing centre. The care shows in every cup.
About the Yirgacheffe Variety
The variety growing here is Ethiopian Heirloom — specifically a Yirgacheffe selection, native to the ancient coffee forests of Ethiopia where thousands of wild varieties have evolved over centuries. These are the genetic foundations of coffee as we know it, and their complexity is unmistakable in the cup: floral, fruity, and distinctly their own.
Some seeds of this variety found their way to Huila, Colombia, where Luis Anibal Calderon spent years cultivating and studying the plant. The cherries it produces are notably elongated — a quirk that hints at mutation or adaptation — and the flavour profiles it yields are among the most nuanced we've encountered from Colombia. Full stop.
Processing
Only the ripest cherries are selectively hand-picked at El Paraiso, then hand-sorted and floated to remove any underripe or defective fruit. They're transported to La Pradera in GrainPro bags to preserve freshness, where they undergo a further float and sort before a 45-hour aerobic fermentation — a method that highlights the coffee's intrinsic character without masking it. The cherries are then dried on raised beds for 8–12 days, turned regularly for even airflow, and monitored to a target moisture content of 9.5–11%. Water used throughout is recycled and filtered through vetiver grass beds. A genuinely sustainable operation. 🌱
🌍 Origin: Barcelona, Quindío, Colombia
👨🌾 Producer: Arturo Arango
🏡 Farm: El Paraiso
⛰️ Altitude: 1,300–1,450 m.a.s.l.
🌱 Varietal: Ethiopian Heirloom (Yirgacheffe)
🔬 Process: Aerobic Natural (45hr fermentation, 8–12 day raised bed dry)
☕ Cupping Score: 89
Brewing
As a filter, this coffee is floral and fruit-forward — ripe cherry sweetness with a cacao nib depth that gives it real structure. Pull it as an espresso and it's rich and complex; add milk and those floral notes soften beautifully into something indulgent and deeply satisfying. However you brew it, it delivers. ☕
Welcome to the Bjorn family. 💛
