Colombia
Huila
Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia and Claudia Samboni
La Loma
Caturra
Natural
August
Blackberry, Dark Chocolate, Grapefruit
1650 meters
N/A
70 kg w/ GrainPro
SOLD OUT
Finca La Loma is located in Vereda Agua Negra in the Pitalito municipality of Huila. The farm has 12 hectares planted with many varieties, including Caturra, Variedad Colombia, Pink Bourbon, Pacamara, Laurina, and Gesha. The mill on the farm includes a depulper and tanks for dry fermentation. Producers Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia and Claudia Samboni have been cultivating coffee on La Loma since 2011.
In 2017, Rodrigo and his team at Aromas del Sur—the company built to unify all the farms he owns and manages: La Loma, El Progreso, and Monteblanco—constructed a cupping lab on La Loma to facilitate sample roasting, crop evaluation, and sourcing at origin. The lab overlooks the farm and the valley of Pitalito, with coffee trees and other crops dotting the rolling landscape.
All cherries harvested are measured for degrees Brix. Based on sugar content indicated, the team at Aromas del Sur designates which processing method is appropriate. This lot of Caturra coffee was chosen for Natural processing.
Coffees with 20-23 degrees Brix are selected for Natural processing. Floaters are sorted out and then the ripe coffee cherries are placed in the solar dryer for five days, followed by roughly 22 days on raised beds in the shade. The moisture content of the cherries is monitored throughout the process and cherries are turned to avoid the formation of any mold or mildew or collection of moisture.
The Colombian Department of Huila is located in the southern portion of the country where the Central and Eastern ranges of the Andes mountains converge. Huila’s capital city of Neiva is dry, flat, and desert-like, markedly different from the coffee regions further south.
Centered around the city of Pitalito, Huila’s coffee farms are predominantly smallholder owned and over the past ten years have made concerted efforts to produce specialty coffee that reveals the full character of the region’s terroir. Selective manual harvesting, attentive processing, and careful post-harvest sorting all contribute to increasing recognition of the region.
Huila’s departmental coffee committee, the local connection to the national Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, has invested notable resources into training producers in everything from fertilization to roasting. This, combined with producer enthusiasm, has created a regional culture of quality-focused production.
Huila holds important historic significance dating back to pre-Colombian cultures. The archeological site at San Agustin includes a large number of stone carvings, figures, and artifacts that offer a rare glimpse into the land’s past prior to colonialism.
