Finca Tamana Castillo Espresso | Colombia

Colombia — Elias Roa & Bellanid Sanchez Finca Tamana Castillo Tambo (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🌿 Herbal • 🍫 Dark Chocolate • 🍒 Red Fruit

DETAILS

• Producer: Elias Roa & Bellanid Sanchez
• Farm: Finca Tamana
• Region: El Pital, Huila, Colombia
• Varietal: Castillo Tambo
• Process: Washed
• Size: 250g

INTRO

Castillo is an intense and sweet espresso coffee with flavours of herbs, dark chocolate and subtle notes of red fruit in the background. This particular Castillo comes from the regional selection named Tambo — one of three Castillo types grown at Finca Tamana, and the one Tim Wendelboe consistently rates above the rest for its quality and occasional delicate floral character.

When cherries are picked fully ripe at a deep purple colour, the herbal character typical of this hybrid softens, yielding more sweetness and fruity brightness in the cup. This is Tim's philosophy in practice: meticulous harvesting and rigorous processing at Tamana doing the work that turns a promising cultivar into a genuinely compelling espresso.

THE PRODUCER

Finca Tamana is a 57-hectare coffee plantation in the mountains between El Pital and La Plata in Huila, Colombia. It was acquired by Elias Roa and his wife Bellanid Sanchez in 2011 after the farm had been left abandoned — and what they have built since is a meticulous operation. Stainless steel fermentation tanks, an eco-mill that reduces water use from up to 100 litres per kilo down to less than one, and parabolic dryers with shade nets for slow, even drying over 20 to 30 days: the infrastructure at Tamana now reflects a genuine, long-term commitment to quality.

Tim Wendelboe first met Elias in 2007 during a sourcing trip through Huila. Early samples did not meet his standards, but Elias's drive and passion left an impression. Their working partnership began in earnest in 2012 when Tim spent a week at the farm to develop a long-term quality plan together. The goal: make Finca Tamana one of Colombia's most consistently excellent farms whilst ensuring the enterprise remained economically sustainable for Elias and his family.

Over the years, Elias has planted more than 30 new cultivars at Tamana in an ongoing project to find varieties that can outperform the traditional Caturra and Variedad Colombia. The Castillo Tambo selection is one of the most successful results of that experiment — rust-resistant, productive, and capable of delivering a cup quality that has surprised even experienced tasters.

THE PROCESS

The Washed process at Finca Tamana involves:

• 🍒 Selective Picking — Cherries are hand-picked by hired pickers under Elias's supervision, targeting full ripeness at a deep purple colour.
• ✅ Hand Sorting — Cherries are sorted by hand before processing to ensure only ripe, undamaged fruit enters the mill together.
• 🔧 Overnight Hopper Rest — Cherries are held in the cherry hopper in open air overnight before de-pulping in the morning.
• 💧 De-Pulping & Fermentation — After de-pulping, parchment coffee with mucilage is fermented for 24 hours in clean stainless steel tanks, stopping when the mucilage cleans off cleanly before any negative fermentation flavours develop.
• 💧 Soaking — Clean parchment is soaked in fresh water to remove residual mucilage.
• ☀️ Drying — Coffee is dried on raised beds in parabolic dryers covered with shade nets, raked throughout the day to ensure even drying. Target moisture content is below 11%, typically taking 20–30 days.
• 📅 Storage & Packing — Dried parchment is stored in airtight GrainPro bags on the farm in tempered conditions before milling. All Finca Tamana coffees are vacuum-packed prior to export, preserving cell structure and slowing oxidation.

This disciplined process — and particularly the rigorous picking at full purple ripeness — is what draws out sweetness and red fruit brightness in the Castillo Tambo, keeping its herbal character as a background note rather than a dominant flavour.

THE CUP

An intense and satisfying espresso with a clean, syrupy mouthfeel. Herbal complexity anchors the cup whilst ripe red fruit brightness adds lift, and dark chocolate drives a rich, warming finish. Sweet caramel-like sweetness — panela, almost — ties the whole profile together.

Flavour Notes

• 🌿 Herbal
• 🍫 Dark Chocolate
• 🍒 Red Fruit