Colombia

Norbey Quimbayo

Crisp and juicy tropical fruit

A complex pre-fermentation protocol leads to a crisp tropical fruit driven profile in this washed lot by Norbey Quimbayo

Producer
Norbey Quimbayo
Coffee expression
A fruity & rich coffee

Regular price: $25.00
incl. vat/tax
Sale price: $25.00
incl. vat/tax
Regular price: ~~$25.00~~
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The undisturbed volcanic soils and high altitude here lead to excellent conditions for high quality lots.

Colombia

Norbey Quimbayo

Norbey Quimbayo grows coffee near the town of Acevedo in the Huila region of Colombia. Norbey’s farm, La Esmeralda lies a short drive from Pitalito, one of the major coffee towns serving Huila with services such as dry milling and buying centres. The volcanic soils in Huila, undisturbed by the intensive agriculture seen further north, are full of nutrition, and alongside high altitude, lead to excellent conditions for producing high quality coffees. It’s for this reason that Huila is quickly becoming one of the most renowned growing regions in all of South America.

Norbey inherited his farm from his father nearly 30 years ago, and initially made a good living producing commodity coffee. After the coffee price crisis of the early 2000’s, Norbey was made aware of the volatility of the coffee market, and set about researching the speciality sector in order to stabilise and increase his income. During this time he was also made aware of exotic varietals like Pink Bourbon, which require more care but can fetch much higher prices due to their exceptional quality potential.

The complex pre-fermentation protocol leads to a crisp and clean tropical fruit expression.

Pink Bourbon

A carefully developed fermentation

Nowadays, Norbey works primarily with Cofinet to sell his coffee. They have collaboratively developed processing methods for Norbey’s coffees, including this heavily pre-fermented washed protocol. First, ripe Pink Bourbon cherries are carefully sorted, and floated to remove low density and defective fruit. The cherries are then fermented in open tanks for 24 hours, before being sealed in plastic bags with no access to oxygen for 90 hours. During the second fermentation, the temperature is controlled so that the fermentation mass doesn’t exceed 22°C. Finally, the cherries are depulped, washed and dried on raised beds. This method creates a very clean and crisp expression, still focussing on the characteristics of the raw material, but enhancing the juicy tropical fruit notes we often find in Pink Bourbon.

Technical Data

Producer
Norbey Quimbayo
Region
Huila
Altitude
1800 masl
Varietal
Pink Bourbon
Process
Washed
Harvest
October 2021

Washed Process

The washed process involves completely removing both the cherry and the mucilage from the outside of the parchment with the use of friction, fermentation and water. After being harvested, the coffee cherry is then sliced open by either a metal or a sharp plastic blade.

The two seeds (also known as beans) are pushed out of the cherry, which leaves the seed with mucilage as their outermost layer. It is essential in the washed process that all mucilage is removed from the seed which leaves only the flavour that developed in the cell structure of the seed prior to processing.