Colombian Coffee Wilton Benitez
$17.00 – $180.00
We taste Peaches, Melon, and Rosé. Try it today!
Colombian coffee beans. Colombia coffee. Unlike haymans coffee, this is fresh roasted.
Juicy, Sweet, and Delicious
This is a cup that showcases all the stone fruits. Peaches, apricots, and nectarine. Lots of sugary flavors of melon like honeydew and cantaloupe. There’s a mild fermentation reminiscent of rosé and pink champagne. We love this coffee in a French Press or as a fun, fruity cold brew, but pour-over brews have been our favorite so far.
The cup is rich. Purple florals. A little reminiscent of bubblegum.
Wilton Benitez produced this magical micro-lot on his infamous farm, Granja el Paraíso-92. We at Rigby Roastery are proud to present a series of their lots this year via direct trade. Wilton’s alchemy has us enchanted. It is a conversation invoking brew rich in nostalgic qualities.
We especially enjoyed it in a conical pour over. Bust out the V60 or the origami. We recommend you go for a high TDS (about 1.45) and increase the coffee to water ratio (1:14) to create more syrupy sweetness. Cut it with a little bypass water to add structure if you find it lacking. This produces a complex cup that was also palatable for the average coffee drinker.
Notably, as the grind gets finer it gets a lot thicker on the tongue and some citrus notes become more concentrated. Furthermore, these brews also tend to get more chocolatey and dank like Jamaican rum.
This one is brighter as espresso. There is some hemp flower smell to it and lots more orange and lemon going on. We recommend 20 grams in and 50 grams out at about 24 seconds for a milder acidity and a creamy body.
About Colombian Coffee from Wilton Benitez
In agricultural endeavors, it helps to have vision, possess a persistent attitude, and ultimately understand how to invest your passion into your project in ways that yield significant results. In southern Colombia, Piendamo in the department of Cauca to be exact, you can find Granja el Paraiso-92, an innovative project operated by a farmer who embodies all of those traits, Wilton Benitez.
After Wilton Benitez coffee set a new record for the international auction price of Colombian coffee in 2019, his willingness to think outside the box and excitement for weaving together tradition with new innovations in agronomical science have only grown.
His journey into coffee cultivation and processing in his youth helps him to realize his affinity for coffee farming today. In the last decade, he’s become more focused on technological advances in cultivation and processing. The potential for modernizing coffee farming with advanced methods and new machines while perfecting the tried and true best-practices of his life’s work results in remarkable coffees. They demand the attention of the global community. We are thrilled to offer this micro-lot direct from a fan favorite.
We purchase these lots directly from Wilton’s family farm, Granja el Paraiso-92, in Colombia. They then ship them from Bogotá to our facility in the USA. The farm employs 92 families at peak harvest and directly employs 15 year round.
Everything about his operation is cutting-edge. There’s a microbiology laboratory on site alongside the quality laboratory and processing facilities. He grows more than 20 coffee varietals. Firstly, meticulous processes including rigorous selection, sterilization, sorting and characterization of cherries, and an initial controlled anaerobic fermentation are applied to each lot. Even further processing may be applied to the lot according to the most prolific potential profile.
Wilton’s project spans 100 hectares, 20% of which is designated as protected forests. It is made up of 3 farms, Granja el Paraíso-92, La Macarena, and Las Brisas. The 2 larger farms, La Macarena and Las Brisas, are co-owned by two other multi-generational farmers. This provides opportunities for learning and experimenting. They work diligently to better understand cultivars improve seeds, and gather data.
One of the reasons this is such a well-known farm is because Wilton has invented and advanced drying equipment alongside his team. This machine circulates air, and controls the temperature once humidity has been reduced. This machine reduces the risk of embryo damage and safeguards volatile compounds that are flavor and aroma precursors by providing for an expertly controlled dehydration. He can replicate and manipulate protocols based on each individual batch.
By circulating air and collecting moisture from the grains, Wilton’s unique equipment reduces energy consumption by 60% compared to Cisco machines, a popular brand of this type of equipment. These facilities prevent the risk of drastic changes in weather ruining an entire crop, and reduce the harsh effects possible when using traditional machines.
Agricultural endeavors are always an exercise in variability and the randomness of nature. It’s a delight to see the hard work and adaptability of a seasoned agronomist coming to life in a harvest like this one.
A recent interview with Wilton reveals some of the method behind his madness. He draws inspiration from wine making and the ways that fermentation can enhance the inherent flavors of the coffee. In the past, methods borrowed from the wine making world, such as carbonic maceration, have proven to enhance the presence of aromatic molecules in the beans.
About the Processing
- Firstly, they pick the caturra cherries using a brix meter to selectively harvest only the most perfectly ripe fruit. They sort them to remove any defective cherries.
- Secondly, they perform an anaerobic fermentation similar to carbonic maceration.
- Thirdly, they pulp and wash the cherries.
- Fourthly, they perform a secondary anaerobic fermentation.
- Finally, they move them to technologically advanced drying machines.
Wilton Benitez Coffee comes from Cauca
The Cauca region is the cradle of the Colombian massif, which is the source of most of Colombia’s major rivers such as the Cauca and Magdalena. Cauca is closer to the equator so it receives the most possible hours of sunshine throughout the year. It sports a stable climate throughout the year and the farms enjoy the protection of the high mountains from the winds and humidity that comes from the Pacific.
However, growing coffee in this region can be difficult due to the cooler night time temperatures that aren’t common in other areas of Colombia. This is a blessing and a curse though as it slows the ripening of cherries and can enhance acidity and sweet and fruity compounds in the cup.
The Puracé and Sotará volcanoes here enrich the soil with sulfur. Sulfur interacts with the sugars in the beans and creates a caramel, honey, and apple aroma and flavor in the coffee grown here.
Cauca is home to many micro-lots and nano-lots that are unique to the many cloud forests that exist there. The region is a heterogeneous, mountainous place and the smallholder farms here tend to produce one-of-a-kind coffees produced at different times of the year in different places.
For more delicious beans check out our Hops Infused Colombia Geisha Coffee from Edwin Noreña
Colombia geisha coffee beans for sale. Wilton Benitez coffee. Gesha coffee bean.
