Nestor Lasso
This coffee originates from the 24-year-old producer Nestor Lasso and the El Diviso farm. Spanning 18 hectares, the farm consists of 15 hectares dedicated to coffee cultivation and 2 hectares of forest area. El Diviso features a wide variety of coffee varietals, including Caturra, Colombia, Castillo, Tabi, Pink Bourbon, Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Bourbon Ají, Caturra Chiroso, Geisha, Sidra, Java, and Pacamara. Nestor employs fully washed, semi-washed, and natural processing methods, utilizing parabolic dryers, raised African beds, and some mechanical drying systems. The farm is home to 80,000 coffee trees, growing at an elevation of 1,700 to 1,850 meters. Nestor explains, “We are the third generation of coffee growers. Our grandfather, José Uribe, founded the El Diviso farm. With the collective efforts of our family and consistent savings, we were able to build the infrastructure needed to process differentiated coffees, aiming for better quality in both our coffee and our lives. After a long period of trial and error, we standardized various processes, enabling better income and allowing us to plant new varieties that deliver improved quality. One of our dreams is to produce specialty coffee that reaches the entire world.” For this natural process coffee, the process begins by selecting cherries at optimal ripeness, measured between 24 and 26° Brix. The cherries collected by pickers are evaluated to determine suitability for this process, with lower-quality cherries being separated. The selected coffee cherries are then stored in plastic jars for 48 hours or until the pH reaches 4.5. A floating process follows, removing void and impure cherries. This initial water contact involves cold or ambient temperature water. The cherries undergo a 50° Celsius thermal shock before being stored in jars for an anaerobic fermentation phase. During this stage, Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast (T58 type), commonly used in brewing beer, is added at a 1:5 ratio (1 gram of yeast per 5 kilograms of cherries). Fermentation occurs at 35° Celsius over 80 hours. After fermentation, the coffee cherries are dehydrated using a mechanical drying system before being transferred to African drying beds for approximately 15 days or until the target humidity is achieved