Colombia Nestor Lasso Sirda

For this natural process coffee, the process starts by picking cherries that are at the optimal ripeness, where they need to be between 24 and 26° Brix. The coffee collected by the pickers is evaluated in order to decide whether it can or cannot be used for this process. Additionally, the cherries of lower quality are separated. The coffee is then stored during 48 hours in plastic jars or until the Ph=4.5. The coffee is floated in order to get rid of void and impure cherries. This first water contact is done with cold/ambient temperature water. Thermal shock: the cherries go through a 50° Celsius thermal shock before being stored in jars where an anaerobic fermentation phase begins. Saccharomyces cerevisiae (T58 type) yeast is added during this fermentation (35° Celsius during 80 hours). This yeast is commonly used in beer breweries. A 1:5 ratio is used (1g of yeast to 5kg of cherry) Drying: the coffee is moved to a mechanical drying system in order to dehydrate the cherries as much as possible in a quick way. Last, the coffee is placed in African drying beds for approximately 15 days or until target humidity is reached.