Country: Colombia

Region: Risaralda

Farm: Finca Milán

Producer: Julio Cesar Madrid

Process: Co-fermentation/Culturing

Varietal: Castillo

Altitude: 1500 meters

Size: 125g
Brew: for all brew methods

Finca Milán is the pride of Julio Cesar Madrid Tisnés, a third-generation coffee producer deeply committed to quality. His dedication to the craft has led him to cultivate some of the more unusual coffee varieties in Colombia, such as Sudan Rume, Yirgacheffe, and Laurina, each known for its intricate flavor profiles. Julio’s pursuit of excellence is further supported by his daughter, Maria Antonia Madrid, a biologist who has played a crucial role in refining the farm’s processing methods. Her research into the organoleptic effects of microbial starter cultures in coffee fermentation has been instrumental in enhancing the quality of their coffee.

For this "April" Coffee, Café UBA introduced an innovative processing technique called culturing or co-fermentation, which has since been employed at Finca Milan. This process involves the mixed fermentation of coffee with fruit juices and aromatic plants—in this case, melon and chamomile. The journey begins with freshly harvested coffee cherries placed in bags for 24 hours to raise their temperature to 40°C, breaking down carbohydrates into sugars. The coffee is then pulped and transferred to sealed tanks with melon, chamomile, panela, yeast, and bacteria starter cultures, where it ferments for 72 hours. After this, a second starter culture is introduced, and the mixture continues fermentation under restricted oxygen conditions for more than 144 hours. Once fermentation is complete, the coffee is dried until it reaches 40% humidity before being moved to a mechanical dryer to achieve the ideal moisture level of 10-11%, a meticulous process that spans 20-25 days.