This is one of four very exciting fruit infused/co-fermented coffees sourced through Forest Coffee. 3 of them processed at El Vergel Estate by the Bayter brothers, 1 processed by a close partner, Huver Castillo.
This particular lot was sourced from & produced by Huver Castillo on his farm El Paseo in Narino. With the help of Forest Coffee, Zest previously shared one on Huver's Coffee in early 2025, Rocket Flower. Huver was a mater teacher until 2015 before diving into coffee! He is a third generation coffee farmer, with the El Paseio farm being in the family for 20 years. It is one of three farms the Castillo family owns.
This particular lot was an exciting lot that our Head Of Coffee, Aryan Aqajani, first tasted when visiting Colombia in mid 2025! Aryan was in the country supporting the 2025 Narino Auction when the Forest coffee team took the volunteers to Huver's farm. It tasted so good Aryan secured 10 boxes on the spot!
This lot begins with the careful selection of Caturra cherries which are then floated to remove underripe and defective fruit. The cherries then undergo a 48 hour pre-fermentation in cherry. They are the dried and depulped, while the by-product of this pre-fermentation is collected (the mossto). The mossto is combined with fresh, crushed Blackberry fruit. The coffee beans are re-introduced to this mixture at a ratio of 500g mossto/berries for 1 kilo of coffee. This secondary fermentation occurs in stainless steel tanks for a 10 day anaerobic fermentation. This oxygen-free environment allows a slow & controlled fermentation to intensify the fruit forward profile. Once the fermentation is complete, the coffee is sun-dried on patios for 10 to 20 days until it reaches a moisture content of 12%.
