Colombia | Jairo Arcilla – Santa Monica, Tabi – Washed

Colombia | Jairo Arcilla – Santa Monica, Tabi – Washed

Tastes of: Peach nector, orange grape syrupy sweet.

Jairo Arcila spent more than forty years judging other people’s coffee before he had any of his own. A third-generation grower from Quindío, he worked as mill manager at Colombia’s second-largest exporter until he retired in 2019 — four decades of grading lot after lot, learning the trade from the sorting table up. That knowledge has shaped everything he built afterwards. Finca La Esmeralda came first, in 1987, planted to Caturra; five more followed, bought one at a time out of savings — Villarazo, Mazatlán, Santa Mónica, Maracay, Buenos Aires. His sons Carlos and Felipe, founders of Cofinet, have guided him deeper into rare varieties, and Pink Bourbon, Java, Papayo and Gesha now grow across the family’s land.

This lot is Tabi, from Santa Mónica, above Armenia. Colombian by design rather than accident: a cross of Timor Hybrid, Bourbon and Typica, released by the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros in 2002, three years ahead of Castillo. It takes its leaf rust resistance from the first and its cup from the other two, and here it grows tall and slow on volcanic ash soil.

Processing is a matter of precision. Picked to strict ripeness criteria, carried in GrainPro to the family’s La Pradera mill, hand-sorted and floated to remove anything underripe or low in density. Then thirty hours of underwater fermentation, pulped, washed, and dried on raised beds over twelve days.

The result is peach nectar and orange, syrupy sweet, with grape lingering underneath.

Discover our brewing guide here for our favourite preparations.