Colombian coffee is world-renowned for its soft, mellow taste, and La Esperanza in the Huila region is a standout among them. This estate, jointly operated by several coffee farmers, has repeatedly achieved success in Colombian coffee competitions and scored high on Coffee Review thanks to its forest-grown environment at 1,400 to 1,650 meters and its commitment to hand-picking. This article will take you deep into La Esperanza's regional background, the characteristics of its four sub-estates, its coffee varieties and processing methods, and the distinctly different flavor profiles under light and dark roasts, while also introducing the fascinating story of rare varieties such as Geisha. Front Street Coffee recommends you savor the coffee charm of this top-tier estate.
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What are the characteristics of Colombian La Esperanza coffee beans? How much does La Esperanza coffee cost?
Colombian coffee enjoys considerable sales and usage worldwide, mainly because of its soft, aromatic, and pure taste, and with its low brewing difficulty, almost every household can easily enjoy it, making it an excellent pairing for desserts and cakes. With Colombian coffee, you don't need to make a special trip to a coffee bar to experience that rich, mellow atmosphere, whether it's pure black coffee or formula coffee made with it as a base, it's an ideal choice.
The Huila region in southwestern Colombia, along with the Narino region and the Tolima region, are ranked as the three major producing areas of high-quality coffee, and almost every year the top ten in Colombian coffee competitions come from these three regions, which also mainly consist of small coffee farmers with small yields and small cultivation areas. La Esperanza is located in the Huila region, but it is not a farm belonging to a single person or family; rather, it is a group of coffee farmers who have united to sell under the name La Esperanza. The estate is scattered in forests at 1,400 to 1,650 meters, relying entirely on hand-picking ripe coffee cherries, and the coffee farmers uphold a good growing environment and persistently control green bean quality. This estate was the champion of the 2007 Colombian coffee competition, and in 2008 it also took 9th, 12th, and 14th places (won by different growers). In November 2008, American coffee expert Kenneth Davids (author of Coffee Review and Home Coffee Roasting) gave it a high score of 93, establishing its status among Colombia's top estates.
Colombian La Esperanza hand-sorts defective beans at a rate of about 4%; when roasted to City (light) the weight loss ratio is 14%, and hollow and defective beans account for 6%. When picking out defective beans, one can sense a fresh, pasture-like aroma, as if walking on grass after rain. Appropriately raising the steaming and roasting temperature and using a steeper heating curve can retain more aroma and sweet-acidity layers; this is the correct choice made by La Esperanza.
Light roast City (fragrant): A black plum acidity rarely seen in Colombian coffee, yet not astringent, bright and delicate; the mouthfeel is smooth, without the traditional rich style of Colombian coffee, instead carrying a touch of Costa Rican coffee flavor, and the acidity transforms into plum sweetness very quickly.
Dark roast (regular C): With raisin aroma as the background, the mouthfeel unfolds around fruit maple syrup, with a fruity milk-like sweetness spreading across the tongue without feeling particularly heavy. As the coffee temperature gradually drops, the overall impression moves toward a rounder, sweeter depth.
La Esperanza is undoubtedly Colombia's top estate.
Its affiliated estates have won the Best of Panama championship (2008) and runner-up (2009)*. In 2012, with three products it swept an incredible 2nd, 3rd, and 7th place among the SCAA Coffee of the Year top ten. In the just-announced GFA (Good Food Award), La Esperanza also became the only winning estate outside Ethiopia, Kenya, and Panama***.
As for the high-score records of 95 and above on Coffee Review, they are even more dazzling, making the editor want to excerpt until his hands give out and simply give up.****
La Esperanza owns a total of four estates: Esperanza, Las Margaritas, Cerro Azul, and Potosi.
Won the Best of Panama championship (2008) and runner-up (2009).
In 2012, with three products it swept an incredible 2nd, 3rd, and 7th place among the SCAA Coffee of the Year top ten.
In the just-announced GFA (Good Food Award), La Esperanza also became the only winning estate outside Ethiopia, Kenya, and Panama.
2014 WBC runner-up competition bean
2012, 2013 US Brewers Cup two-time champion competition bean
2014 Coffee Review Best of the Year No. 16
2014 Coffee Review Best of the Year No. 25
2013 Coffee Review Best of the Year No. 08
October 2014 Coffee Review 95 points
April 2014 Coffee Review 95 points
August 2013 Coffee Review 96 points
November 2012 Coffee Review 96 points
Country Colombia
Region Valle de Cauca
Altitude 1,400-1,650m
Variety Pacamara
Processing Natural
Flavor description: The dry aroma exudes rich wine and floral notes. When sipped, it has the sweet-sour flavors of pineapple, longan, black plum, blackcurrant, passion fruit, blueberry, and grape. It is a tropical fruit wine bean, lively and with bright acidity characteristics.
Colombia La Esperanza Café Granja La Esperanza
Café Granja La Esperanza is composed of 6 farms under the Herrera family located in El Valle del Cauca and Cundinamarca, with owner Rigoberto Herrera.
The farms within Colombia include La Esperanza, Cerro Azul, Potosi, Las Margaritas, and Hawaii, covering eight microclimates.
La Esperanza, Cerro Azul, Potosi, and Las Margaritas are all located in Trujillo, Valle del Cauca, a province in western Colombia that faces the Pacific Ocean.
Trujillo sits on the eastern mountain range, relatively flat, on the west side of the Cauca River, with altitude extending from 1,000 to 3,000 meters. The warm climate of the valley meets the cold air of the Pacific, making the average temperature and rainfall suitable for coffee growth.
The soil in this area mostly contains volcanic ash and organic matter, though phosphorus is generally low, so Café Granja La Esperanza mixes its own natural fertilizer to ensure the health of the coffee trees and the quality of the coffee beans.
Interestingly, within Granja La Esperanza a coffee tree called Laurina (a BOURBON variety) is planted; its fruit is naturally low in caffeine, but because the fruit is more fragile than ordinary coffee cherries, its yield is very small.
In La Esperanza, Caturra, Geisha, Moka, Bourbon (including red, yellow, and Tekizik), Laurina, Pacamara, San Bernardo, and Pache are planted.
Altitude comparison:
La esperanza: 1,400-1,700 meters
Cerro Azul: 1,700-2,000 meters
Potosi: 1,400-2,000 meters
Las Margaritas: 1,400-1,800 meters
Area comparison:
La esperanza: 34 hectares
Cerro Azul: 18 hectares
Potosi: 52 hectares
Las Margaritas: 34 hectares
The Geisha story of Café Granja La Esperanza:
In 2005 the Herrera family leased the La Cardeida estate in Boquete, Panama, right next to La Esmeralda, famous for Geisha. Initially, with the assistance of botanist Hernando Tapasco, they experimented with growing the Geisha variety, and the cultivation team had previously spent two years in Panama learning Geisha's characteristics. In 2008, La Cardeida's Geisha successfully won the championship at "The Best of Panama." In 2012 at the SCAA Coffee of the Year, the washed Geisha under the names Cerro Azul, Las Magaritas, and Buenos Aires won 2nd, 3rd, and 7th places respectively.
Geisha is also planted at La Esperanza, including a rare organically certified variety (Geisha organica). All cherries are hand-picked, and the workers pick at a higher frequency than usual to ensure quality.
Other estate features:
☁ Cerro azul
Next to La Esperanza, the terrain is relatively high; although there is stronger sunlight, there is cloud and mist at both sunset and sunrise, reducing water evaporation and having a cooling effect. The valley location transforms the Pacific sea breeze into clouds and mist, and together with volcanic soil and ample rainfall, it is very suitable for Geisha growth. Although about 7 varieties and about 45,000 Geisha trees are planted here, the naming is very strict: those that can bear the Cerro Azul name are only the 5,000 to 7,000 among them that can express Cerro Azul's characteristics. And those that can be called AAA reserve are only 2 of the 7 varieties, and must be grown at 1,800-2,000 meters altitude.
The coffee processing is fully washed, including 16 hours of fermentation, then removing moisture in a dryer, and then sun-drying on raised beds. The picking workers here must receive five months of training.
☁ Las Magaritas
A bit farther than Cerro Azul, in Colombia's central mountain range, part of the Andes. Whether in soil, altitude, or weather, it is the best, so there are many rare varieties here, such as Pacamara, Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Tekisic, Mokka. Besides Geisha, there is also a variety called Sudan Rume, whose leaves have a copper color; this tree can resist many coffee tree diseases and is mostly used for grafted blends. It is said that its cup quality is not inferior to Geisha, but its growth is less stable than Geisha, so it has not been mass-propagated.
Las Margaritas' Geisha requires 14 hours of fermentation, and after washing is fully sun-dried; because the climate here is humid, there are relatively few other beans that rely entirely on sun-drying.
Let's compare the appearance of the three coffee seedlings Geisha, Sudan Rume, and Laurina
☁ Potosi
The farm faces Las Magaritas. Cultivation began in the era of Rigoberto Herrera's great-grandfather, so the varieties are mainly Colombian varieties and Caturra.
Caturra coffee tree
Besides valuing coffee quality, the estate also pays attention to environmental protection and employee welfare, implementing different methods to improve talent, optimize the environment, and increase productivity.
Colombia 哥伦比亚
Population: 47,073,000
Colombia has clearly defined growing regions and the various, impressive coffees they produce. Whether you want a round, heavy coffee mouthfeel, or a refreshing, fruity flavor (or something in between), it is most likely a Colombian bean. Colombia is divided by geographical location, and it is not hard to find that the coffees of the area share many common characteristics. If you like the coffee of one region, you will also like the others. Coffee trees in Colombia get two harvests, the main harvest each year and the second harvest, locally called "mitaca."
CAUCA
CAUCA Cauca, among other things, this area is best known for its coffee growing around Inza and the Meseta de Popayan of Popayan city; the high altitude of the plateau provides favorable growing conditions, and its proximity to the equator and the surrounding mountains protect the coffee from the humidity of the Pacific and the southern trade winds. This creates a very stable climate year-round. In addition, the coffee of this region has notable volcanic soil. Historically, there is a single rainy season from October to December each year.
Altitude: 1,700-2,100m
Harvest: March-June (main crop), November-December (mitaca crop)
TOLIMA
TOLIMA Tolima, located in one of the strongholds of Colombia's notoriously infamous insurgent group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, remained under its control until recently. Tolima has suffered from fighting in recent years, which has made visits difficult. Quality coffee from this region comes from smallholder farmers cultivating very small micro-lots and exported through cooperatives.
Altitude: 1,200-1,900m
Harvest: March-June (main crop), October-December (mitaca)
Varieties: 9% Typica, 74% Caturra, 17% Castillo
NARINO
Some of Colombia's highest-quality coffee grows in Nariño, arguably the most stunning and complex in flavor. Growing coffee in many of these high-altitude areas is a challenge, and coffee trees may suffer from leaf rust. However, Nariño is close enough to the equator that the climate is suitable for growing coffee trees. The vast majority of Nariño's 40,000 producers are smallholders, each cultivating less than 2 hectares (4.4 acres). Many form groups and organizations to support one another and interact with the FNC. In fact, the average farm size is less than 1 hectare (2.2 acres), and only 37 producers in the region own more than 5 hectares (11 acres) of land.
Altitude: 1,500-2,300m (4,900-7,500ft)
Harvest: April-June Varieties: 54% Typica, 29% Caturra, 17% Castillo
HUILA
Huila has an excellent combination of soil and geographical advantages for growing coffee, and some of the most complex, fruit-forward Colombian coffees come from here. The region has more than 70,000 coffee growers, covering more than 16,000 hectares (about 39,500 acres).
Altitude: 1,250-2,000m
Harvest: September-December (main crop) April-May (mitaca crop)
Main varieties: 11% Typica, 75% Caturra, 14% Castillo
Colombia - La Esperanza
Colombian coffee long ago shed the impression of being inferior or base coffee. Through coffee competitions in recent years, people have come to better understand Colombian coffee. Good coffee usually comes from good estates and some small, special producing areas such as the previous Colombia-Narino region, but the output of these coffees is really not much. Before the coffee competitions, Colombian coffee was graded by bean size, but this grading only represented bean size and had no relative relationship with quality. "Bigger beans are better" was an outdated grading system. Instead, some excellent coffee estates or cooperatives with small yields and small cultivation areas produce beans that are generally smaller, rounder, and more complete. This is the mainstream of Colombian coffee today; good quality is the guarantee of price.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
