Monteblanco Caturra Huila Excelso

Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia a third-generation coffee farmer at Finca Monteblanco. His grandfather began cultivating coffee here several decades ago and today, Rodrigo works to preserve the natural diversity and productivity of the farm.

Finca Monteblanco is located near Cueva de los Guacharos, one of the 59 protected parks in Colombia. The Suaza river also runs nearby and provides freshwater for cultivation and processing.

Rodrigo cultivates Caturra, Geisha, Pink Bourbon and Pacamara varieties on Finca Monteblanco. Rodrigo calls the coffee in this lot Purple Caturra because of the deep color of the cherry. The high altitude and superb microclimate of Acevedo, Huila creates the ideal conditions for cultivating specialty coffees.

Cherry is selectively handpicked and delivered to the on-site wet mill. Rodrigo selected “purple Caturra” for this lot, a Caturra variety with different leaves and cherry color than Red Caturra. When measured on Brix sugar content meters, “purple” Caturra has higher Brix content than typical Red Caturra. Cherry is floated to remove any under or over ripe coffee.

Once cherry is picked, Rodrigo adds a mixture of lactobacillus, saccharomyses and cerevisiae bacteria, for a total of 10 different yeasts to cherry to promote fermentation. Cherry is fermented for 8 days and then pulped. Coffee is placed in sealed plastic buckets with passion fruit and cholupa, a sour fruit often used to make a form of lemonade, to add additional flavor. Coffee ferments for 150 hours more. Following fermentation, coffee is washed in clean water and laid in parabolic beds to dry. Parchment is raked frequently to ensure even drying.

Founded by experienced agricultural trader Vicente Mejía, Clearpath Coffee works with producers in Colombia and exports high quality, sustainable single-origin coffees from smallholders, cooperatives and estates. Clearpath partners with producers to support ethical, sustainable growth through fair prices, direct communication with buyers and building long term relationships with sustainability-minded buyers.