Roaster’s Report - Colombia Ildefonso Cordoba

Source: Shared Source

Country: Colombia

Producer: Ildefonso Cordoba. Don Ildefonso is a member of the Los Guácharos group, and we’ve purchased many lots from him over the years. He currently lives in the town of Bruselas, and his nephew helps and lives at his farm with his family. Ildefonso recently renovated more than 4,000 trees of San Bernardo with many less-common varieties, including pink bourbon, yellow caturra, yellow bourbon, and bourbon aji. He has become a bit of a seed guru with his germinator, distributing seeds to other members of his community. He’s also known as the clown of the Los Guácharos group- he’s funny, sweet, and as an active, involved member, he lifts the spirit of the group significantly. Though he comes from a coffee producing family, he started his farm from scratch, and has managed to bring it to the point where it’s producing great quality coffee- 12 years into his endeavor.

Elevation: 1800m

Coffee variety: Pink Bourbon

Processing: Ildefonso has his process down to a careful science! On day 1, he picks cherries (pink bourbons are difficult to pick at peak ripeness, because their color can make the cherries seem unripe!). He leaves the coffee in cherry for 12 hours in tulas- nylon woven bags- until the morning of day 2. Because his pink bourbon lot is on the smaller side, he’s able to pick most of it in one day. He floats the cherries to remove the over- and under-ripe cherries, and then de-pulps them, using a screen to further remove stray pulp that can make it into the tank, and ensure a homogenous fermentation. He ferments coffee in sealed bags in ceramic tanks to stay cool, and he monitors the fermentation carefully- each varietal ferments differently, so he doesn’t rely on specific hours. He washes the coffee once, and then takes it down to his drying deck.

Cupping Score: 87

Coffee description: This coffee is sweet, layered and complex. It has both delicate floral notes and a smooth, medium level body. We get notes of raspberry lemonade, and milk chocolate.

Green coffee transparency: 924lbs @ $5.80/lb, January 2024. Shared source paid the group 3,175,000 pesos per carga (125 kilos of parchment coffee, this is the unit farmers sell their coffee in). (Commodity coffee price: $1.65/lb. Why is this important? Coffee pricing is complex and multifaceted, and sharing what we paid is an incomplete picture, but we believe in sharing the data we have available, hoping that will embolden others to do the same, with the ultimate goal of getting producers fairer pay for their excellent work.)

Length of Relationship: Shared Source, since 2023.

Get more: Buy here

If you want to learn more about how we would brew this coffee, click here for our brew guides.