A single Castillo varietal from Antonio Niño´s farm in the Cundinamarca region of Colombia.

Processing station 

La Palma y el Tucán

La Palma & El Tucan goal is to shatter the status-quo by implementing groundbreaking social, environmental, and technological innovations. Located in Colombia’s Cundinamarca department, this project is changing the model that Colombia has used to grow, process, and market coffee, where productivity comes before quality.

La Palma & El Tucán has identified more than 100 coffee-growing families located within a 10km radius of their farm. It is through these neighbors that they are able to buy and process exceptional coffee cherries of traditional Colombian varieties such as Caturra, Castillo, Colombia, Typica and Bourbon and take them to the next level by controlling every stage of the process.

Producer

Antonio Niño is the 62 years-old traditional farmer in charge of El Placer.

A farm with 12,000 coffee trees planted on 4 hectares of land. As a long-term coffee grower, Don Antonio has become a crop expert. One year ago, he was offered to take over El Placer. Since then, Antonio has applied his 40 years of coffee experience to take care of the plants and produce the perfect coffee cherry.

Don Antonio is a father to 4 grown sons, who sometimes help him with the crops. Thanks to Antonio’s devotion to the lands, he has been able to pay for his sons’ education so they can access better opportunities.

Processing method 

Lactic fermentation 

This kind of fermentation is classified as ‘Anaerobic’ as oxygen has minimal interaction with the cherry. Once the cherries arrive at the mill, they are hand sorted and placed in sealed tanks. With no oxygen involved, bacteria feed on carbohydrates present in the mucilage favoring a higher concentration of Lactic Acid, creating a unique profile of the resulting cup.