Buenos Aires - Washed Thermal Shock Yellow Papayo - Huila, Colombia

Producer: Beto Narvaez - Finca Buenos Aires Location: El Diamante, Huila Variety: Yellow Papayo Process: Washed, Thermal Shock Harvest: 2026 Importer: Shared Source Contract Price: $7.75 per pound Thermal Shock Process: Originally pioneered by Huila producers Wilton Benitez and Diego Bermudez, thermal shock is a secondary processing technique intended to enhance clarity and sweetness, and impart unexpected fruit character to a cup. After fermentation and depulping, the coffee is washed with hot water which opens the cellular pores, followed by cold water closing them. The cellular level changes are thought to eliminate undesireable enzymes, and lock in sweetness. Washed Process : The standard, method of perparing coffee before roasting. It results in high-clarity, delicate flavors. The process begins with mechanically depulping the coffee cherry, followed by repeated washing with clean water to ensure the complete removal of the fruit mucilage. The coffee is then fermented for a short period of time to remove the parchment layer, and then dried in the a single layer either in the sun or in shade for several days. Colombian coffee producers are incredibly innovative. In response to decades devastating coffee rust disease, they developed high quality disesase resistant varietals like Colombia and Castillo. As the specialty coffee industry has evolved, they've been at the forefront inventing delicious new techniques for fermenting coffee, vastly expanding the range of flavors possible in the cup. Coffee from Colombia can't be easily generalized, but it's particularly famous for malic acidity (think apple & pear), big sweetness, and delicate florals on the aroma.