Neider Criollo Betancourt / Washed / Colombia

Origin: Colombia
Producer: Neider Criollo Betancourt
Farm: La Virginia
Region: Tarqui
Municipality/County: Huila
Varieties: Colombia
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1700 masl
Flavour Profile: Prune, Pomegranate, & Gooseberry

Neider Criollo Betancourt owns a 2.5-hectare farm called La Virginia, where he grows both Castillo and Colombia varieties. He's been a farmer since 2012 and became a member of the cooperative Asociación Los Naranjos in October of 2020. The association has just over 50 members, all smallholder farmers in and around the area of San Agustín, Huila.

He was born into a coffee-growing family but his father passed away when he was only 8 years old. It wasn't until 2012, when Neider traded a motorcycle for his first piece of farmland, that he got involved in the coffee-growing business. While at first he was limited in his ability to create high-quality coffee because of a lack of equipment, he has just begun realizing his dream of focusing on specialty coffee: His first-ever specialty delivery in 2020 cupped out at 87 points in the lab!

On Neider's farm, the coffee is picked ripe and "rested" overnight in its cherries, for about 12 hours. It's depulped the following day and fermented for 48–72 hours before being washed. In order to check if the coffee is ready for washing after fermentation, Neider feels it with his hands to gauge the temperature: He has developed his process of recognition through trial and error after a full year of experimentation. The coffee dries for 15–30 days in a solar dryer.

We buy this coffee directly with the help of Fairfield Trading.