Farm: El Vergel
Region: Tolima
Process: Natural Anaerobic
Variety: Red and Yellow Caturra
Elevation: 1350 masl

Packed with tropical notes of guava and banana, it’s no wonder this natural processed coffee is called Banana Guava. The remarkable care and craftsmanship exhibited by our partners at El Vergel Estate yield wonderful tropical flavors. Brew it with care and experience a consistently sweet, smooth, and juicy cup.

Martha and her two sons, Shady and Elias Bader, own and operate the El Vergel Estate, which sits at 1350 masl in Fresno, Colombia. This lot from El Vergel Estate is 100% Caturra that underwent a natural process, and is aptly named after the tasting notes that it most readily exhibits – the tropical fruitiness of guava and banana paired with the rich sweetness of caramel and chocolate.

What makes Guava Banana even more special? It was picked entirely by women, who Martha specifically hired to harvest this lot in order to promote their financial independence, which has directly changed the lives of over 12 women and their families to date.

To top it off, the natural process of this coffee used a 36-hour fermentation in steel tanks under anaerobic conditions. After that, it was dried to 20-30% humidity, then sealed with 30% humidity in Grainpro bags in a dark room, letting the coffee rest and continue to ferment in humidity. The first rest was around 2 days, after which they put the coffee on African beds to dry, and then repeated the process a few more times. The reason that they allow the coffee to dry on the beds in-between the rests in Grainpro is to ensure that fungus is not able to develop. The result of this meticulous process is an incredibly vibrant, fruity, juicy coffee.

This single origin coffee is one you truly won’t want to miss.

El Vergel is located in the beautiful Departamente of Tolima spanning across the mountains in Colombia. Colombia boasts 11 different altitudes, each containing a unique flavor palate, that is unrivaled anywhere else in the world. El Vergel, rests on one of the slopes of an inactive snowy volcano of Ruiz, that has created some of the most nutrient rich soil for planting. Each and every green coffee bean is single-origin, hand-picked, and carefully inspected by one of our tenured pickers. We go through great lengths to only produce the finest yields from our crops for coffee roasters around the world.

This Red & Yellow Caturra is one of the flagship coffees produced at El Vergel, located in the micro-lot next to the washing station, and surrounded by Guava trees, this coffee profile has been one of the most intense and brutal coffees developed by the estate. Planted in 2016 & 2018 with a quantity of more than 40.000 plants, this lot has been one of the best of the estate to experiment with processing bigger lots. ​Processed with a unique method at the estate that consists on an special anaerobic 2 step anaerobic fermentation to develop a more intense but clean profile, to showcase all the attributes of the variety combine with a flavors unique from the process, which is then dried at the sun for 15 to 25 days.

This coffee was processed through an anaerobic controlled temperature fermentation for 48 to 60 hours taking close control to the ph levels, followed by an intermittent drying process of a series of stalls in different moisture levels to enhance complexity, and finished in silos to obtain accurate moisture of the beans and then stabilized for 45 days to homogenize the beans and promote complexity to the profile.