COLOMBIA LUIS ANIBAL CALDERON - FILTER

ORIGIN : COLOMBIA REGION : HUILA FARM / PRODUCER : FINCA VILLA BETULIA / LUIS ANIBAL CALDERON ALTITUDE : 1450 M VARIETY : COLOMBIA PROCESSING : NATURAL In the hills of Acevedo in southern Huila, Luis Aníbal Calderón and his family have transformed Finca Villa Betulia into one of the region’s most distinctive specialty-coffee farms. A second-generation producer with more than four decades of experience, Luis began working with coffee at a young age, eventually cultivating a small piece of land given to him by his father. His path hasn’t always been easy. Around 2011, low commodity coffee prices brought Villa Betulia close to financial crisis. Rather than pursuing higher yields, Luis began moving in the opposite direction: toward quality, careful processing and unusual varieties. In 2012 he planted 5,000 Gesha trees, and their success convinced him to continue transforming the farm. Villa Betulia has since become home to an extraordinary collection of coffee genetics, with more than 30 varieties cultivated and processed separately. This lot, however, comes from one of Colombia’s most important home-grown cultivars: Variedad Colombia. Developed by Cenicafé and released in 1985, Colombia was created to combine good cup quality and productivity with resistance to coffee leaf rust. At Villa Betulia, Luis approaches this familiar Colombian variety with the same attention normally reserved for his more exotic cultivars. For this natural lot, only fully ripe cherries are selected. After harvest, the cherries undergo approximately 25 hours of dry fermentation before being slowly dried for around 25 days in a protected parabolic dryer. This long, controlled drying stage is particularly important in Huila’s humid and frequently rainy climate. Natural processing in Colombia is demanding. Keeping the whole fruit around the seed during drying creates the potential for greater sweetness, fruit intensity and aromatic complexity, but it also requires careful control. Consistent sorting, airflow and movement of the cherries help the coffee dry evenly and cleanly. The result is a coffee that connects traditional Colombian genetics with Luis Aníbal Calderón’s progressive approach to fermentation and processing—a beautiful example of why Villa Betulia has earned such a strong reputation among specialty roasters around the world. Luis’ work is also very much a family project. Villa Betulia has developed from the small plot he first cultivated into a farm where knowledge is being passed to the next generation; his son Yeison is now involved in managing the estate alongside him.