Colombia — Pablo Andrés Guerrero Hacienda El Obraje Typica (Honey)

Tastes Like — 🍃 Raspberry Leaf • 🍊 Clementine • 🍐 Concorde Pear

DETAILS

• Producer: Pablo Andrés Guerrero
• Farm: Hacienda El Obraje
• Region: Tangua, Nariño, Colombia
• Varietal: Typica
• Process: Honey (36hr Anaerobic Cherry + 24hr Dry Mucilage + 20-Day Solar Drying)
• Altitude: 2,200 MASL

INTRO

From Pablo Andrés Guerrero at Hacienda El Obraje in Tangua — a honey processed Typica of clean, fruit-driven character from a 2021 Colombia Cup of Excellence winning farm in the cold Andean highlands of southern Nariño. Selected by Hydrangea during a cupping visit for its distinct purple-fruit expression that stood apart from everything else on the table. In the cup: raspberry leaf, clementine, and Concorde pear, with citrus brightness, pear-like sweetness, and a soft herbal accent.

THE PRODUCER

Pablo Andrés Guerrero is an architect from Pasto who came to coffee through a background in cereal and fruit agriculture. His Hacienda El Obraje sits at 2,200 MASL in Tangua — a cold Andean climate where slower plant development extends the maturation cycle and the quality potential of each cherry. The estate dedicates 55% of its area to environmental reserve while cultivating approximately 39 hectares of coffee, including Typica, Geisha, Caturra, Castillo, Maracaturra, Yellow Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, Moka, and SL28.

El Obraje's first-place result at the 2021 Colombia Cup of Excellence with a washed Gesha lot established the farm's international reputation — and the same careful lot separation, deliberate variety selection, and processing discipline that produced that result is applied equally to this Typica honey. Hydrangea selected this coffee at PROCAAL in Nariño in February, where its purple-fruit depth and clean elevated structure made it immediately stand out.

Typica is one of the foundational Arabica varieties, belonging to the Bourbon-Typica lineage and valued more for cup quality than productivity. At 2,200 MASL in Nariño's cold highland conditions, its inherent clarity and articulate structure provide the ideal canvas for the honey process to build fruit depth without losing definition.

THE PROCESS

The Honey process at Hacienda El Obraje involves:

🍒 Hand-picking & sorting — Ripe cherries hand-picked and sorted by colour before processing 💧 Washing & flotation — Washed and separated by density through flotation before fermentation 🔒 36-hour anaerobic cherry fermentation — Whole cherries fermented in 200-litre plastic tanks without oxygen or light for 36 hours 🔧 Dry pulping — Cherries depulped without water after the first fermentation, leaving mucilage intact on the bean 🔒 24-hour dry mucilage fermentation — Depulped beans fermented for a further 24 hours in dry mucilage under the same oxygen-free, light-free conditions ☀️ 20-day solar drying — Dried on solar drying panels for 20 days to optimal moisture content

The dual anaerobic fermentation — first in the whole cherry, then dry in mucilage — is the defining step. By fermenting twice in sealed, oxygen-free conditions and pulping between the two phases, Pablo builds the raspberry leaf and clementine fruit concentration and Concorde pear sweetness that define this lot, while the honey process retains enough mucilage to build texture and depth without obscuring the clean, elevated structure that makes high-altitude Nariño Typica so compelling.

THE CUP

A clean, fruit-driven, and beautifully structured honey Typica from one of Nariño's most carefully managed and Cup of Excellence-recognised estates — raspberry leaf herbality, clementine citrus brightness, and Concorde pear sweetness in a fruit-forward cup with the clarity and defined finish that 2,200 MASL and deliberate processing consistently produce. The purple-fruit expression that caught Hydrangea's attention at PROCAAL, in every cup.

Flavour Notes

🍃 Raspberry Leaf 🍊 Clementine 🍐 Concorde Pear