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

Tastes Like — 🌿 Herbal • 🌶️ Habanero • 🍈 Papaya

DETAILS

• Producers: Elias Roa & Bellanid Sanchez
• Farm: Finca Tamana
• Region: El Pital, Huila, Colombia
• Varietal: Caturron
• Process: Washed
• Harvest: May–July 2025

INTRO From Elias Roa and Bellanid Sanchez at Finca Tamana — a genuinely unique cultivar with a flavour profile unlike anything else typically found in Colombia. Herbal and bell-pepper-like at first, with a distinct habanero-like character (minus the heat) and tropical papaya sweetness underneath. In the cup: herbal, habanero, and papaya.

THE PRODUCER Finca Tamana is a 57-hectare coffee farm in the mountains between El Pital and La Plata, Huila, acquired by Elias Roa in 2011 after a period of abandonment. Today it's managed by Elias and his family, including Bellanid Sanchez. A few years back, the couple planted Caturron to test its cup quality potential — a decision that turned out to reveal one of the most distinctive flavour profiles the farm has ever produced.

Caturron is a local Colombian cultivar discovered in Huila, though its exact origin remains unknown. DNA testing suggests it's a crossing between Hibrido de Timor (Arabica x Robusta) and Bourbon or Caturra, making it genetically close to Variedad Colombia, but visually distinct — uniform, oblong beans with strong resistance to leaf rust. Early on, some local cuppers assumed the coffee was over-fermented or flawed, having never encountered a profile like this in Colombian coffee before. Repeated tastings across multiple harvests confirmed it was simply the cultivar's true character — wild, herbal, and fruity, similar to the flavour found in habanero chilies, without the heat.

THE PROCESS Cherries are selectively hand-picked by hired pickers under Elias's supervision, then hand-sorted to ensure only ripe fruit moves forward. After an overnight rest in the cherry hopper, the coffee is de-pulped in the morning and fermented on parchment for 24 hours in clean stainless steel tanks, stopped as soon as the mucilage loosens cleanly. Washing uses an eco-mill, a mechanical mucilage remover that cuts water use from the typical 50-100 litres per kilo down to just 0.5-1 litre. The parchment then soaks for 24 hours in clean water within tiled cement tanks, with all low-density floaters removed throughout washing and soaking. Drying takes place in parabolic dryers and shaded beds over 20-30 days, raked regularly for even drying, until moisture drops below 11%.

The cultivar itself is the defining factor here — its unusual genetic makeup produces the herbal, bell-pepper, and habanero-like character that sets it apart from virtually anything else grown in Colombia.

THE CUP Distinct and wild — an intense herbal, bell-pepper character upfront, with a habanero-like flavour (minus the heat) and a tropical, papaya-like sweetness underneath. Genuinely unlike any typical Colombian cup profile.

Flavour Notes 🌿 Herbal 🌶️ Habanero & Floral 🍈 Papaya