Papayo Wilton Benitez – Colombia

This coffee comes to us from Wilton Benitez, a world famous coffee producer and manager of the prestigious El Paraiso 92 farm in the high altitude region of Cauca, Colombia. The farm has become synonymous with quality and innovation for both their farming systems and the methods used to process their coffees. Using farming methods such as terraces, drip irrigation, shading, and laboratory nutrition counts in order to grow the highest quality coffees possible. They then explore different processing methods for their washed, honey, and natural coffees, using anaerobic fermentations with varying time and number of fermentations to highlight new and unique flavour profiles.

The producer, Wilton Benitez, has been growing coffee for over 26 years with over 16 of those years being dedicated to specialty coffee. Wilton and his farm have become famous worldwide for their innovative growing and processing techniques but he is also a roaster with a lifetime of experience in tasting.

The process for this coffee begins with sorting and sterilizing fresh, ripe cherries in order to prepare them for fermentation. The cherries are pulped then placed into an anaerobic bioreactor, along with specific microorganisms which kick-start the fermentation process, beginning the anaerobic fermentation. Throughout the 52 hour fermentation they are constantly monitoring and adjusting elements such as temperature, pH, and brix degrees to ensure quality fermentation. After fermentation, the coffee is washed then dried in mechanical dryers over the course of 48 hours.