Colombia - Elkin Guzman - Catiope - Strawberry Natural

Elkin Guzman, the owner of El Mirador, has been surrounded by coffee since he was born. His family has always been involved in coffee cultivation, trading, or retail. Collectively, his family has celebrated over 70 years in coffee now, with 12 years of research devoted to post-harvest processing techniques. All of this research and experience has brought Elkin to utilize multiple processing techniques depending on the individual lot of coffee, including Coffee Maceration, Lactic and Acetic Natural processes, and Natural Hydro Honey.

Strawberry Natural processing begins with harvesting coffee cherries that have measured above 20 degrees Brix. The cherries are sorted via flotation before being hand sorted to remove dark and overripe fruit. The cherries are then fermented for 60 hours in plastic tanks. After this initial fermentation, a mother culture of microorganisms like lactobacillus and saccharomyces which has been fed with molasses and strawberries for a few days is added to the tanks. In this culture, the molasses provides energy for fermentation while the strawberries contribute flavor.