El Refugio, Agudelo Uribe family, Colombia | Washed Geisha FSC-8769

El Refugio belongs to the Agudelo Uribe family since August of 2020. It started as a project to share family time, connect with nature and produce specialty coffee – something that all members of the family are passionate about. The farm has 7.5 hectares of coffee and exotic varietals like Gesha, sidra Bourbon and other Ethiopian varieties, with an average age of 3 years. The farm is located in the same mountain range as the “Ruiz Volcano”, giving volcanic soils to the farm. Before being a coffee farm, the use of the land was oriented towards livestock and grass. However, when the farm turned to coffee, the owners have planted a lot of native trees to create shading and agroforest systems that seek to protect the coffee from the harsh winds and erosive characteristics of the land. These trees also help to fix nitrogen in the soil in order to give more nutrients to the coffee plantation. Additionally, since the trees are all native species, they become a natural habitat and source of food for the native fauna; especially regional birds. The main harvest (70%) is in the second semester (October-January), and the fly-crop (30%) is in the first semester (March-June) Processing of the coffee: All the coffee processed in the farm is fully washed coffee. When the trees grow older there will probably be natural coffees coming from the farms, but the initial harvests have had great results showing the terroir and big potential of a young coffee. The process is being done in an “Ecomill” that is a machine that pulps the coffee and has a fermentation tank right beneath the pulping machine. It has a big plus when it comes to water management, where the water consumption is very low compared to other methods.