*SPECIAL RELEASE ROSE FERMENTATION* Colombia - Luz Helena Salazar

TURKISH DELIGHT, ROSE TEA & CANDYFLOSS (LOL, I KNOW RIGHT)

I’m running out of words. I’m sorry.

I feel like recently we’ve been getting in some really great coffees, fancy varietals, processing etc etc. Every time I do a write up I enthuse about it, and it’s genuine, I love what we’ve been shipping. And this is another one, best ever, sweetest most silky brew yet, thermal, sacrificial rituals, fruit this, high score whatever, blah blah blah… But I think I’ve used up all my words and superlative descriptors now. So basically, this coffee, 10/10. Smells amazing, tastes amazing. It’s turkish delight, rose and candyfloss, hits you right in the face with it. If those are your flavours, get this. It’s another silly experimental process, rose fermentation. Roasted light/medium. Similar flavour intensity (rose this time though) as the strawbs lot. I’m brewing as filter, but you wanna make a flat white with this? Ooooofffttt FUUHGEDDABOUTIT you are in for a treat.

Also, I know this is the dearest coffee I’ve ever had on, it’s the dearest, by some margin, I’ve bought in.

THE COFFEE ITSELF

Luz Helena grew up in Armenia and has been producing coffee for the last 20 years. She owns Maracay, an 8-hectare farm located at 1450 m.a.s.l, in Armenia Quindio. Luz is Carlos and Felipe's mother, the co-founders of Cofinet, and wife of Jairo Arcila.

Luz's passion for coffee was inspired by her husband's work on coffee farms and as a dry mill manager. Luz would hear Jairo talking about coffee and wanted to be more involved in the industry. With the support of Jairo, Luz started learning how to care for coffee plants and what steps she needed to take to produce high-quality, ripe cherries. Luz found dealing with insects very challenging at the start and would draw on Jairo's knowledge to help with this.

For several years now, her focus has been on producing Specialty Coffee. With the support of Cofinet, Luz has been able to improve farm practices and focus on producing the best cherries she can. Once ripe, the cherries are then processed by Cofinet at our processing station, La Pradera.

When Luz is not tending to her coffee trees, she enjoys spending time with her friends and being part of local support groups for vulnerable people.