Camilo Enciso El Triunfo Bourbon Washed

The Enciso Franco family has owned El Triunfo since June 2014. Camilo Enciso is the general manager at ASOPEP, a regional leader, and a great advocate for the Planadas cooperatives. He catalyzed a partnership between different Planadas cooperatives, which has led to greater market visibility for the region and an increased presence at trade shows and coffee events around the country. Enciso has a clear vision of positioning Planadas and maximizing the potential of this unique part of Colombia’s coffee lands.

In 2015, through a program implemented by ASOPEP, over 320 trees were planted at El Triunfo, mainly walnut, guamo, and vanilla. The farm has its own water sources and uses water from the community aqueduct. It has two forest conservation zones, each covering approximately 1 hectare.

The main shade on the farm is provided by carbonero trees (Albizia carbonaria); there are more than 100 trees that are over 30 meters tall. 

Their harvesting team is trained to ensure that only optimally ripe cherries are picked. In the wet mill area, the coffee is submerged in water to remove any floating beans, leaves, or sticks. Afterward, a manual selection is done on a table built for this purpose. The coffee is then left in this area for 24 hours, exposed to air but under a roof. Next, the coffee is pulped without water and placed in plastic containers for a period of 96 to 144 hours, depending on the variety, ripeness, and ambient temperature.

The leftover cherry from each day is packed in polypropylene bags to accelerate decomposition, which is later used in vermiculture or composting, and then applied back to the coffee fields.

The washing is done with very clean water that comes directly from natural springs. There is only one wash, after which the coffee goes through pipes to tanks. From there, it is moved to the drying mill, where it is spread on wooden floors for 24 to 48 hours of direct sunlight exposure to remove moisture (bringing the moisture level down to 30-40%). Then, it is transferred to multi-tier drying racks in drying sheds, which are covered with shade netting to prevent the temperature from exceeding 40°C. The coffee stays in these racks for about 20 to 35 days, depending on the ambient temperature.

In the drying mill, the coffee is manually stirred every hour to ensure more even drying. The coffee is turned 3 to 4 times in the drying sheds during daylight hours.

It is important to note that all coffee movement, from the washed coffee tanks to the mill and the drying sheds, is done manually. There is no mechanization in this area.

During the harvest and mitaca harvests, an average of 8 people work on the picking, while the rest of the year, 4 permanent workers handle other tasks such as cleaning, fertilizing, planting, and weeding.