La Esmeralda

La Esmeralda Varietal – Chiroso Preparation – 45 hour aerobic natural Location – Buenavista, Quindío Altitude – 1800 masl Importer - Cofinet Cesar farms La Esmeralda in Buenavista, in the hills of Quindío, where volcanic ash soils and cool nights at 1,750–1,800 metres give the coffee time to develop slowly. He and his pickers take only the ripest cherries, which are then hand-sorted and floated at the farm to pull out anything underripe or low-density before processing begins. Chiroso itself is something of a puzzle. It turned up as a natural mutation in Urrao, in Antioquia, and for years everyone assumed it was a Caturra offshoot — short trees, light green leaves; the family resemblance was there. Genetic testing said otherwise, tracing it back to Ethiopian landrace stock. That heritage shows