Fernando Bocanegra
“I was born on the Colombian plains and have lived here all my life. I am a cook by profession, not a farmer. It all started with an offer to buy a plot of land in Tolima and start a coffee growing project, which was very exciting, I enjoyed it and I have learned a lot in the last five years. I’ve met some incredible people that I’ve learned from and I am still learning from. Eventually I got the farm together with a friend from Tolima.”
Fernando Bocanegra is one of the farmers we started working with in the last year. Fernando and his family are from the Tolima region, an area that is not as well known in Colombia when it comes to fine coffee. And this beautiful Geisha has really come through for Fernando.
COUNTRY
Colombia
REGION
Ortega, Tolima
FARM
El Oasis
ALTITUDE
2150 m
SIZE OF THE FARM
31 ha of which 15 ha Geisha
COFFEE VARIETIES
Bourbon Rosado, Caturra Amarilla Tabí, Geisha
ABOUT THE FARM
“This farm was purchased five years ago. There was nothing there, we started from scratch. We planted our first Geisha and it didn’t go well because of poor management. My partner Pedro Lugo decided to take over the farm and go live there. Since then we have started to see good results.
The great advantage is the altitude and the climate, which helps us not to fight so many coffee diseases. Our coffee trees are very healthy, another advantage is that the variety that adapts best is Geisha, which gives us very good results. One of the disadvantages is that the road is very difficult to access in winter. We see our farm as a project that is under development and has huge potential for growth.”
ABOUT THE PROCESSES
“We carry out short anaerobic fermentation processes in plastic tanks or oak wood boxes. We harvest only the ripe berries, ferment them and sort them again. After fermentation, when the cherries and pulp are peeled using a water mill, they are placed in a shed and the drying process, which we monitor, begins. They are then re-sorted and packed into Grain Pro bags. We select our coffee from the moment it is harvested until it is packaged, which guarantees its quality.”
Geisha
Lot is a great example of this delicate variety. Geisha is characterized by its delicate, floral notes and light body. That’s why we recommend roasting this coffee on a filter and Fernando’s Geisha is very delicious with a flavor profile going into the peachy Neste and a creamy yogurt aftertaste. The coffee is processed by the washed method with a couple of hours of anaerobic fermentation of about 8.