Papayo – 240h Carbonic Maceration

This specialty coffee from Colombia comes from Finca La Isabela, which, together with Finca El Samán, is part of the El Samán Coffee Farms Project in the Quindío Department. Both farms have been owned by the Zuluaga family for generations and are located in the village of El Tapado, a small corregimiento between Montenegro and La Tebaida.

The farms together cover approximately 27 hectares and cultivate various high-quality varieties such as Papayo, Yellow Caturra, Pink Bourbon, and Cenicafé. Currently, rare varieties like Sidra and Chiroso are also being newly planted.

This lot is based on the Papayo variety, a rare Colombian variety originally discovered in the Huila department, which is particularly well suited for experimental fermentation methods.

Producer: Jaime Zuluaga

The farm was long managed by Jaime Zuluaga, a former lawyer who later devoted himself entirely to coffee cultivation. Today, the project is undergoing a generational transition, with his son Juan Camilo Zuluaga gradually taking over the management of the La Isabela and El Samán farms.

Together they are working to further develop production and use innovative processing methods to explore new flavor profiles in coffee.

Method: Carbonic Maceration

This coffee undergoes a 240-hour carbonic maceration process.

After selective hand-harvesting, only fully ripe coffee cherries are brought to the farm. There, they are first floated in water and carefully sorted.

On the same day, the cherries are placed in airtight fermentation tanks without water. They ferment in these tanks for 10 days (240 hours) under controlled conditions. During fermentation, the containers are turned twice daily to ensure even fermentation.

Once the process is complete, the cherries are spread out on drying beds and slowly dried.

The result is a complex and expressive coffee with a warm and sweet flavor profile.

Flavor profile

This coffee displays a well-rounded and intense profile with notes of:

Chocolate

Cocoa nibs

Vanilla

Starfruit

Preparation instructions

This coffee is particularly well suited for filter brewing, where its sweet and spicy notes as well as the complex fermentation come to the fore especially clearly.

Recommended methods:

V60

origami

Chemex

French Press

Aeropress

For filter coffee, we recommend a medium to slightly coarser grind to optimally highlight the balance between sweetness, body and aromatic clarity.

For filter coffee, we recommend a slightly coarser grind to particularly highlight the sweetness and spicy notes.

Variety and processing

Variety: Papayo

Processing: 240 hours of carbonic maceration

Region: El Tapado (Montenegro / La Tebaida) Quindio Colombia

Mounting height: 1400

Cup Score: 87 points