Colombia — Rodrigo Sánchez Valencia, Finca Monteblanco, Purple Caturra (Pineapple Washed Co-Fermentation)

Tastes Like — 🍍 Pineapple • 🌲 Pine Ame • 🍋 Passionfruit

DETAILS

• Producer: Rodrigo Sánchez Valencia
• Farm: Finca Monteblanco
• Region: Huila, Colombia
• Varietal: Purple Caturra
• Process: Washed Co-Fermentation with Pineapple
• Altitude: 1,730 MASL
• Size: 227g (8oz)

INTRO

Finca Monteblanco, perched high in the mist-laced mountains of Vereda La Tocora above Pitalito in Huila, is the source of this vivid pineapple co-ferment. Rodrigo Sánchez Valencia's Purple Caturra — a rare variety ripening to a deep, jewel-like purple — provides the ideal vehicle for this innovative process, its naturally elevated Brix levels offering the microorganisms an optimal environment to work.

The result is a cup that is simultaneously fruit-forward and precise: pineapple drives the profile with a clean tropical sweetness, Pine Ame brings a refreshing herbal brightness, and a passionfruit acidity ties everything together with a vivid, citrus-edged finish.

THE PRODUCER

Rodrigo Sánchez Valencia manages Finca Monteblanco in the tradition of coffee cultivation begun by his grandfather — 18 hectares on a hill crest in Vereda La Tocora, with the wet mill and drying beds at the summit and coffee planted along the slopes below. The farm's transformation began in 2002, when Rodrigo joined a local programme teaching children of producers to cup coffee. That first encounter with flavour — tasting and tracing each cup back to a decision on the farm — reshaped his family's relationship with the land entirely.

As climate change has extended harvest windows to nearly ten months of the year, Monteblanco has evolved: practices have adapted, monitoring has intensified, and the farm's commitment to rigour at every stage has only deepened. Coffees from Monteblanco are milled and prepared for export at Aromas del Sur, a state-of-the-art dry mill in Pitalito, but the foundational work begins in the fields with Rodrigo's exacting standards for cherry selection and fermentation.

THE PROCESS

The Pineapple Washed Co-Fermentation process at Finca Monteblanco involves:

• 🍒 Selective Harvesting — Purple Caturra cherries selectively picked at peak ripeness; Brix levels measured on arrival at the mill.
• ✅ Floating & Sorting — Cherries floated to remove impurities before pulping.
• 🧪 Mother Culture Preparation — A fermentation culture developed from Purple Caturra microorganisms (lactobacillus, saccharomyces cerevisiae) and fed with 80 litres of pineapple fruit, sugar, and molasses to balance Brix and pH.
• 🔧 Pulping — Cherries pulped and deposited into sealed 200-litre fermentation tanks.
• 🧪 Co-Fermentation — 150 hours of controlled fermentation with the pineapple culture; monitored to ensure Brix never falls below 6° and pH never below 4 — Rodrigo's established point of balance for the coffee.
• ☀️ Sun Drying — 2–3 days of direct sunlight drying.
• 🌡️ Canopy Drying — 15–18 days under shaded canopies to reach a final humidity of 10–11%.

The goal of the process is not to impose a flavour, but to amplify what exists — bringing the pineapple's brightness into the cup without it ever overwhelming the coffee's intrinsic character.

THE CUP

Vivid, tropical, and precise, this Purple Caturra from Finca Monteblanco showcases what a masterfully controlled co-ferment can achieve. Pineapple is present but never invasive — it sits alongside the variety's inherent sweetness and the process's natural citrus brightness, creating a cup that is refreshing and complex in equal measure.

Flavour Notes

• 🍍 Pineapple
• 🌲 Pine Ame
• 🍋 Passionfruit