APONTE HONEY
Notes: Sweet and very balanced with notes of creamy chocolate truffle, apricot, and tangy nectarine
The Inga community of Aponte is comprised of descendants of the ancient, pre-hispanic Incas. During the period of conquest, they remained isolated high in the mountains that became their natural refuge. This community did not resume significant contact with the rest of Colombia until the second half of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, in the 1990s, contact was mostly criminal, and Inga’s refuge became a place of cruelty. For years the tribe was forcibly involved in poppy and heroin production under the influence of guerrilla groups, drug traffickers, and paramilitaries. The once-peaceful mountains teemed with illegal plantations and violence, in which the Ingas were trapped until as recently as fifteen years ago.
In the last decade, the mountains have become a safe zone for the Inga tribe, and illegal crops were eradicated to give way to a new culture: coffee! The Caturra variety has been planted in the Inga territory, on smallholder properties in the Resguardo Inga Aponte, at an average of 2150 meters above sea level. This elevation, combined with the Galeras Volcano constantly shedding nutrient-rich ash, makes for an exceptionally complex and sweet coffee.
Producers process coffee on their own properties, drying honey coffee in stacked raised bed solar dryers on their farms. This process reduces water used for washing coffee and complements the natural complexity of coffees from this special region.
Processing Method: Honey
The Honey Process begins with a quality filter that allows us to remove the floater coffee cherries from the process. From here, the cherries will start the de-pulping stage and will pass through a short fermentation of 24 hours in sealed tanks, before moving to the drying stage. In the drying stage, the coffee will rest in African-style raised beds for over 20 days. Finally, parchment coffee will pass through our dry milling and hand sorting stage.