Rose (Zurich)
Ecuador - Santa Gertrudis Caturra 200g
Fruity, Ripe, Sweet, Smooth
Farm: Hacienda Santa Gertrudis
Region: Loja
Altitude: 1550m
Variety: Caturra
Process: Anaerobic Natural Slow Dry
Hacienda Santa Gertrudis is relatively new to the specialty coffee game in Ecuador - having a strong history in coffee, but less focus on quality. This is something Jose Luis is changing in big leaps.
The farm is located just outside of Loja, near Vilcabamba, in the south east of Ecuador. The climate here is very helpful to growing great coffee, being quite warm in summer, and having predictable rainfalls, which helps both growing, and drying of the coffees.
Jose Luis is brilliant at the work he does at the farm - and started off by planting several different varieties, including Caturra, SL28, Bourbon, Sidra, and Geisha all over his land. He has spent a lot of effort in systematically improving his processing, and has it really under control.
This Caturra in particular, was picked and sorted for ripe cherries, before being fermented in plastic tanks for 96 hours, before being removed and sent to a custom built drying room.
Here the cherries were dried slowly, for around 30 days, being dried in a thicker layer, and bunched up over night and covered to maintain more heat and give that signature "Slow dry" roundness and clarity.
