PIENDAMO

Notes: Blackcurrants, Sugarcane, Peach & Lime

Varietal: Castillo

Process: Washed

Drying Process: Sun-Dried

Roast: Medium Roast

Region: Cauca

Farm: Piendamo, Cauca

Farmer: A small group of farmers

Altitude: 1650 – 1850 masl

Weight: 250g

OUR THOUGHTS

This Piendamo coffee has a smooth yet unmistakable flavor profile, packed with sweet and fruity tones​ that contribute to a rich, full body and a smooth acidity and finish.

ORIGIN

Cauca, one of the most famous coffee-producing regions in Colombia, enjoys a stable microclimate, ideal for coffee production. The towering Andes mountains and a close proximity to the equator provide the tools farmers need to produce coffee batches of the highest grade. 

Amidst the four distinct coffee provinces that exist in Cauca (Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Plateau) that are each characterised by unique microclimates, terrain and cultures, this coffee hails from the plateau town of Popáyan – where this Piendamo lot is collected from. 

It is rumoured that Piendamo, the inspiration for this coffee and name of the processing station that brings together the work of local smallholder farmers, was the very first coffee-producing community of Cauca.

It is also said that during his search of the mythical treasure of El Dorado in 1537, the famous Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar stopped to found Popayán, which is now known as the capital of Cauca and home to a fascinating colonial heritage. 

Prior to Spanish arrival in the region, local indigenous populations called the Nasas populated these valleys, and until today, local tribes still use their methods and processes to grow coffee. Notably, other indigenous communities exist in and around this area, making it an incredible cultural landscape for coffee, including the Paeces, Misak and Guambianos. 

Unfortunately, like other high-altitude regions, infrastructure is often lacking in Cauca, posing a number of challenges to producers, including lack of access to transportation and difficulty in securing labour for harvest periods.

PROCESS

Once harvests have reached an optimal ripeness, pickers selectively hand pick cherries and transport them to the Piendamo washing station where they are submerged into large tanks of water. 

Here, the floating cherries are removed to ensure quality and the remaining cherries are machine pulped and sent for fermentation, where the exterior mucilage is broken down prior to being dried. Once cleaned, the coffee is placed out in the open sun to dry.