Colombia — Sebastián Ramírez Fincas El Placer Red Fruit Caturra (Co-Ferment)

Tastes Like — 🍓 Cooked Strawberry • 🍬 Grape Candy • 🍑 Peach • 🍫 Milk Chocolate

DETAILS

• Producer: Sebastián Ramírez
• Farm: Fincas El Placer
• Region: Quindío, Colombia
• Variety: Caturra
• Process: Co-Ferment (Anaerobic with Dehydrated Strawberries)
• Altitude: 1,700–1,800 MASL
• Size: 340g (12oz)

INTRO

Sebastián Ramírez is a fourth-generation coffee producer who began as a traditional grower but set himself on a very different path — one driven by fermentation science and a restless curiosity about what coffee can become. Today he is regarded as a master of co-fermentation and carbonic maceration, and his coffees are anything but ordinary.

The Red Fruit is one of the most direct expressions of that vision: a strawberry co-ferment with rich, layered sweetness that moves from cooked fruit and grape candy to peach and a silky milk chocolate finish.

THE PRODUCER

Sebastián comes from a long lineage of farmers in Quindío but has rewritten the playbook entirely. Over twelve years of dedicated experimentation he has mastered processes that few producers attempt at his scale. He also mentors within the Black & White Young Producer Program, sharing his knowledge with the next generation of Colombian producers.

His farm, Fincas El Placer, sits at 1,700–1,800 metres — an elevation that provides the natural acidity and complexity that makes his fermentation experiments so compelling.

THE PROCESS

The Co-Ferment process at Fincas El Placer involves:

• 🍒 Selective Harvesting — Cherries picked at peak ripeness
• 🧪 Anaerobic Fermentation — Sealed tanks with added CO₂ injection
• 🍓 Co-Fermentation Agents — Wine yeast, fruit glucose, and dehydrated strawberries added to the vessel
• ☀️ Phase 1 Drying — Shade-dried for 20–25 days
• 📅 Phase 2 Stabilisation — Rested in Grain-Pro bags for 15 days to achieve moisture stability

The two-phase drying approach allows fermentation-derived compounds to stabilise and express themselves cleanly in the cup.

THE CUP

Rich, sweet, and deeply layered: cooked strawberry and grape candy lead, giving way to ripe peach before a satisfying milk chocolate finish that carries the sweetness to a comfortable, well-rounded close.

Flavour Notes

• 🍓 Cooked Strawberry
• 🍬 Grape Candy
• 🍑 Peach
• 🍫 Milk Chocolate