MONTEBLANCO, Huila - Colombia

Finca Monteblanco, located high along the winding mountain roads of Vereda Tocora in the San Adolfo municipality above Pitalito, is a family farm managed by Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia in the tradition of coffee cultivation that began with his grandfather.

Monteblanco’s 18 hectares sit on the crest of a hill, with the wet and dry mill at the top and slopes of coffee planted below. In 2002, Rodrigo participated in a local program teaching local children of coffee producers to cup. Before that, he and his family had never considered coffee in terms of cup profile.

By learning to differentiate profiles, he and his father and grandfather were able to make the connections between the farming techniques they applied and coffee’s attributes in the cup. At this time, Rodrigo also began to learn about cupping competitions that evaluate the best lots from farms in a region.

He noticed that farms would win one year and then never again, so he decided to investigate how to produce quality coffee consistently. This led him to explore the trees planted on Monteblanco, where he discovered various cultivars his grandfather had planted in the 1980s.

In addition to the varieties most common in Colombia, Rodrigo found there were trees he had not noticed before, trees with different characteristics, including broad leaves that looked like Geisha. In the cup, the coffee he harvested also tasted like those of Geisha. This was the beginning of Pink Bourbon lot separation.

Rodrigo learned that his grandfather had bought those seedlings in San Adolfo during the early 80s during a leaf rust attack of La Roya when he had to replace a portion of the farm’s trees.

All cherries harvested are measured for degrees Brix. Based on sugar content indicated, the team at Aromas del Sur, the umbrella group of Monteblanco, Progreso, and La Loma farms, then designates which processing method is appropriate.

Coffees with 24-27 degrees Brix are typically processed as washed coffees, and this lot includes cherries harvested all the way up to 27-28 degrees Brix. Floaters are removed first, prior to de-pulping, to produce clean, consistent coffees that represent the terroir of the farm.

Cherries are depulped the day they are harvested. This lot was dry fermented for 37 hours, fully washed with clean water, transferred to the solar dryer for three days, and finally moved to shaded raised beds to complete the drying process. It takes between 23-27 days for coffee to reach the desired humidity level of 10.5-11%.

Rodrigo is proud that he, his wife Claudia Samboni, farm manager Don Gerardo, and the team that works in the fields and at the mill have reached the goal of achieving consistent quality.

By applying an ethic of rigorous monitoring, planning, and management of each stage of production and processing, all coffees from Monteblanco showcase their full potential. Harvesting and processing on Monteblanco have had to evolve with the times, adapting to a changing climate that yields harvest dispersed through ten months of the year rather than in a concentrated peak.

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