Releasing August 31st - 10am EST

Tasting Like: Lychee Ramune Soda, Starfruit Tangy, Pleasant Acidity

Farm: Finca Santa Mónica
Producers: Jario Arcilla
Variety: Castillo
Process: Lychee, Yeast Inoculated
Origin: Quindio, Colombia
Altitude: 1580masl 

Every year a particular farmer, Jario Arcilla, steals bits and moments of the spotlight every summer with his crop, in particular his Lychee Co-Ferment. Lychee Hi-Chew, Lychee Candy, Lychee gum, even Lychee Donut - we've seen all the Lychee flavor notes this coffee gets as we're sure you have as well. This year's crop is landing in a unique soda region with a nice acidity to boot on it. Almost effervescent in type. Lovely truly. What makes Jario's approach particularly fascinating is his restraint - he's not trying to overpower the coffee with fruit flavors, but rather using the lychee and wine yeast as tools to unlock characteristics already present in a Castillo bean. The result is something that tastes unmistakably like coffee while simultaneously delivering those wild inoculated impressions that makes us instantly think of the Ramuné sodas we enjoy from H-Mart.

Jario operates as part of a remarkable coffee dynasty spanning over eighty years in Colombia. He's a third-generation producer and purchased his first coffee farm back in 1987, and he now manages six different properties throughout Quindío. His work employs countless local workers and making a significant economic impact in his community. His approach to this lychee co-fermentation is methodical and precise: hand-picked cherries undergo seventy-two hours of dry anaerobic fermentation with the pulp still intact, during which fresh lychees and wine yeasts are introduced to the sealed fermentation tanks. The lychees contribute delicate floral aromatics and tropical sugars along with a distinctive soft, juicy acidity, while the wine yeast enhances inoculates into the fermentation efficiency and develops the smooth complexity we taste in the cup. After fermentation, the coffee is pulped and processed as a honey, so the sticky mucilage remains on the beans during drying. The Castillo variety itself brings a lot of resilience and productivity to this process - originally developed in Colombia for disease resistance, it provides an excellent foundation that allows Jario's experimental processing to truly shine without being overwhelmed by varietal characteristics.

A bit more about the region:
The Armenia area of Quindío represents one of Colombia's most storied coffee territories, sitting at the heart of the famous Coffee Triangle alongside Caldas and Risaralda. What makes this particular zone extraordinary for coffee cultivation is its volcanic ash soils that provide incredible fertility, combined with the stable year-round climate and optimal altitude range that allows producers like Jario to focus on innovative processing rather than fighting environmental challenges. The region's coffee heritage runs deep - this is where traditional Colombian coffee culture meets cutting-edge experimentation, and farms like Santa Mónica represent the perfect marriage of generational wisdom and modern innovation. Jario's work here exemplifies exactly what we mean when we talk about the coffee of tomorrow: respecting the terroir and variety while fearlessly breaking the boundaries of what's possible through processing and thoughtful growing.

This is exactly the kind of forward-thinking approach that defines the coffee of tomorrow.
Recommended Music to accompany brewing: Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra 
Includes QR code to applicable Tasting Guide™