Luis Camacho - Colombia

Blackberry Jam, Grape Soda, Limeade

Producer: Luis Édgar Camacho
Country: Colombia
Region: Palestina, Southern Huila
Variety: 'Frangrancia'
Process: Washed

This coffee was imported by LaReb (La Real Expedición Botánica), a radical producer-owned export co-operative/movement. LaReb's stated goal is ,"to develop de-colonised supply chains and operate outside the typical multinational pathways of coffee". Herbert and his team leverage their own experience alongside the vast pool of collective knowledge across the coffee chain (areas such as financing, quality, export and import are thoroughly covered in the LaReb membership) to enable members are able to define their own terms of engagement. As La Reb warehouse coffees in Belfast (at The Roastworks) we've been fortunate enough to taste their coffees alongside them whilst learning more about their mission and values.

Luis Édgar Camacho's father spent years picking cherry on other people's farms to save enough to buy the land that would become Finca La Palma, where this coffee was grown. He sadly passed away not long after acquiring the property, which was then taken over by Luis Edgar's mother. She still cultivates her own plots on adjacent land, and the siblings built a house on the property to remain close to her. Today Luis Edgar farms La Palma with his wife ,Ledy, and sons, Jairo and Stiven. The operation is small enough that only one or two additional pickers are brought on during harvest.

Luis Édgar was introduced to LaREB through long-term partner Lizardo Herrera, and has remained a key part of the group since joining. His first dabble in the speciality export market came through Caravela in 2014, and the transition to working with LaREB marked a further step into higher-end lot separation and varietal experimentation.

This coffee has been called 'Fragancia', a cultivar not previously described that, through the good work of the team at Scenery Coffee in London, has been shown to be a hybrid of Sidra (an Ethiopian Landrace varietal) and Catimor (a disease resitant cross of Timor Hybrid and Caturra). The story of where this hybridisation took place traces back to Ecuador

The Nestlé breeding facility in Pichincha province, Ecuador, is now closed but the lab is understood to have worked with imported Ethiopian germ-plasm across a range of breeding objectives from hybrid development and backcrossing to the stabilisation and selection of promising genetic lines. A field technician named Don Olger Rogel is widely credited with identifying two of the most successful selections from the programme and disseminating them to farms across Ecuador, naming them 'Sidra' and 'Typica Mejorado', both of which have since been subject to genetic testing that has complicated their identities considerably, with World Coffee Research finding that Sidra does not have a clear genetic identity and may refer to several distinct varieties grouped under the same name, while Typica Mejorado appears to carry no Typica genetics at all. In the world of coffee the ways we describe varietals/varieties/cultivars (even the choice of term for this causes much debate in comment threads) can create more confusion than clarity, and there is still no widespread consensus on the naming of this 'Fragancia' lot, but as the Scenery team have led on this we will follow, knowing at the heart of things is a phenomenal coffee produced by Luis Édgar that we're incredibly happy to be able to share with you!

We're a fairly well calibrated team in the Established Roastery, but with a variety of preferences we usually choose different coffees as a favourite, so this coffee is something of an oddity as it's all everybody wants to drink! Although it does work well as a bright and viscous espresso, with loads of character, it really shines as a filter brew. This newly described cultivar has lots of body and sweetness so the berry notes are jammy and thick. This coffee has lots of acidity, with malic (berries), citrus (lime) and tartaric (concord grapes) being more dominant at different temperatures. This lot's picking of overripe cherries giving the base for the sweetness and mouthfeel that bring the acidity into balance, whilst being reminiscent of some Kenyan coffees.

It's a privilege to have so rare and interesting a coffee, particularly one that produces such a great drinking experience, but we have very limited supply so don't hesitate to grab a bag (or two)! 

Grind: If you need your coffee ground, select on the dropdown. Let us know in the "Special Instructions" if there is any other specific brew method you need the coffee ground for.