A Personal Connection with Finca La Julia, Colombia

By: Neil Soque | Photo Credits: Finca Julia

As we source coffee and build relationships, Archers always cares about the personal connections that hold our coffee industry together. Sourcing from Finca Julia, a family-run business, is just another example of this. When you hear the story of Niko, Karo, and Karla, you’ll understand why the results that come from their harvests are worth praise and storytelling.

INDULGE. SHARE. CARE.

At JULIA, the family would like for us, their customers, to indulge in our senses, share with others, and care for the planet. It’s their ethos when it comes to their family business, and it’s echoed throughout the company, from the ground up.

JULIA is in an area of Colombia that has been affected by violence, and there have been some years when the farm wasn’t accessible for security reasons. However, the family loves what they’ve built in JULIA, and believe in the magical potential for the coffee grown there. The JULIA family wants you to you know that you’re “drinking a cup made with effort, love, and commitment to the sustainability of our planet.”

We encourage you to read more about the siblings’ story here.

THE ARCHERS - JULIA RELATIONSHIP

Two years ago, a special bond was made as a result of international coffee networking. Rudel Balatbat, a coffee roaster in Singapore at d’Good Café, introduced Archers’ green coffee buyer, Frederick to Niko. After trying some samples that exceeded expectations, the Archers team realized JULIA’s cup quality and potential. “Most coffees that Niko produced have their own unique flavor characteristics, brought out through their special approach to fermentation,” says Frederick.

Archers sees the advantages of working directly with coffee producers like JULIA. "As purveyors of coffee for the region, we have a better opportunity to fine-tune the coffees and cater the final product to what consumers desire in our local area."

JULIA SPECIALTY COFFEE

Specialty coffee production started in 2015. Niko chose to begin with Java because he was looking for rare and exotic varietals, which are hard to find in Colombia. Java, Tabi, and Geisha planting started in mid-2015, and the first cherry picking began in April-May of 2017. Niko experimented with different fermentation and drying processes, including naturals, honeys, and semi-washed. Now, JULIA has a deep lineup of specialty coffees with delicious flavors that can perk up anyone’s palate. JULIA continues to innovate and evolve their practices and techniques in search of higher quality coffees.

ARCHERS’ FINCA LA JULIA OFFERINGS

One of the most critical and sensitive steps to produce specialty coffees is the process. Our aim is to have a crop with a minimum average of 24-30 Brix grades to have enough sugars to develop the fermentation well. It starts by selecting and carefully handpicking in the field. Once the pickers arrive at our site with the ripest cherries from the lot, we start the floating process. In this step, we rapidly put the cherries in a tank with water to take out the non-dense coffee cherries and coffee tree leaves that start floating. After floating, the process continues by hand sorting beans in raised beds before the fermentation process. In hand sorting, we separate the unripe/partial unripe cherries and the overripe cherries.

This is the first step to all JULIA coffees, with the details for each offering to follow.

GEISHA Natural, Anaerobic/Aerobic (double fermentation) 1,550-1,600 masl. 

Once we have the perfect cherries, we start the anaerobic fermentation process by putting the coffee cherries inside a tank with no air or oxygen for 24 hours (16-24°C). After this step, we open the tanks for the Aerobic fermentation process with a minimum amount of cold freshwater for another 48 hours.

In this Natural process, we put the fermented coffee to drain on raised beds for 3-5 days, then on the mechanical drier for 24-36hrs to do a quick dehydration (32-38°C) (the drier is turned on about 12hrs per day). We then take the coffees to the sun-drying station, controlling airflow and shadow to monitor a temperature below 30-38°C. The drying time takes between 20 to 25 days.

After the coffee is dried, we put it in GrainPro bags for 30-60 days for stabilization purposes. We then move forward with milling, electronic sorting, and hand sorting for packaging.

The anaerobic/aerobic process that we are using allows us to emphasize the excellent characteristics we find in our Geisha coffee beans. The floral and lemongrass smell and taste, panela, caramel, delicate long residual, good acidity, and the incredibly sweet and citric flavors (Mandarin lemon), are all highlighted with this process.

Caturra Natural, Aerobic fermentation, 1,500-1,700 masl.

Once we have the perfect cherries, we put the coffee in tanks for the Aerobic fermentation process with a minimum amount of cold, fresh water to control temperature (16-22°C) for 44 hours.

In this natural process, we put the fermented cherries to drain on raised beds for 24hrs. We then put coffee in the mechanical drier for 8-12hrs. Finally, we take the coffees to the sun-drying station, controlling airflow and shadow to monitor a temperature below 30-38°C. The drying time takes between 20 to 25 days.

After the coffee is dried, we put it in GrainPro bags for 30-60 days for stabilization purposes. We then move forward with milling, electronic sorting, and hand sorting for packaging.

The anaerobic/aerobic process that we are using allows us to emphasize the outstanding characteristics we find in our Caturra coffee beans. The red fruits, dark chocolate, creamy body, sweet caramel, winey, good acidity are all highlighted with this process.

Castillo Natural, Aerobic fermentation 1,500-1,700 masl. 

Once we have the perfect cherries, we put the coffee in tanks for the Aerobic fermentation process with a minimum amount of cold, fresh water (16-22°C) for 44 hours. In this natural process, we put the fermented cherries to drain on raised beds for 3 days. We then put it in the mechanical drier for 36-48hrs (the drier is turned on about 12hrs per day).

After, we take the coffees to the sun-drying station, controlling airflow and shadow to monitor a temperature below 30-38° C. The drying time takes between 20 to 25 days. After the coffee is dried, we put it in GrainPro bags for 30-60 days for stabilization purposes. We then move forward with milling, electronic sorting, and hand sorting for packaging.

The aerobic process that we are using allows us to emphasize the outstanding characteristics we find in our Castillo coffee beans. The Fruity, Winy, and Blueberries smell and taste, Cocoa, Marshmallow, Medium body, good acidity, fruity flavors, with a long aftertaste are all highlighted with this process. 

Colombia F6 Suprema Natural, Aerobic fermentation 1,500-1,700 masl. 

Once we have the perfect cherries, we put the coffee in tanks for the Aerobic fermentation process with a minimum amount of cold fresh water (16-22°C) for 36-48 hours. In this natural process, we put the fermented cherries to drain on raised beds for 3 days. We then put it in the mechanical drier for 36-48hrs (the drier is turned on about 12hrs per day).

Afterward, we take the coffees to the sun-drying station, controlling airflow and shadow to monitor a temperature below 30-38° C. The drying time takes between 20 to 25 days. After the coffee is dried, we put it in GrainPro bags for 30-60 days for stabilization purposes. We then move forward with milling, electronic sorting, and hand sorting for packaging.

The aerobic process that we are using allows us to emphasize the excellent characteristics we find in our Colombia F6 Suprema coffee beans. The blackberry smell and taste, chocolate, cocoa, the creamy body, hazelnut, the particularly sweet and red fruits flavors, and the full round body are all highlighted with this process.

"We want to let the coffee's wonderful flavors expand in the cup and stimulate all senses for whoever is experiencing it." 

MORE REASONS TO CHOOSE JULIA COFFEES

Estate Coffees

JULIA still produces very high-quality Rainforest Alliance certified green estate coffees. JULIA uses traditional Arabica varietals like Caturra, Colombia F6, F4, and Castillo. JULIA also takes things further as they produce some Estate coffees with specialty processes, making them intense and highlighting beautiful notes to indulge your senses and share with others. 

Women at JULIA

JULIA believes in diversity, inclusion, and opportunity. Women are great contributors to the beautiful coffees that JULIA produces. For our specialty coffee, women carefully choose the ripest cherries and help us showcase the best coffee. From Karo to Karla, to Doña Leticia and her daughters, JULIA believes in working with great detail and love to make sure you have a coffee to indulge your senses, share with others, and care for the planet.

Benefit to Our Customers

In general, in UAE, most specialty coffee drinkers love to drink coffees with proper fermentation adding to the flavors. Most customers like a natural-processed coffee with tropical fruit and very intense aromatics, which you can easily find in Niko's Coffees. Niko and the whole team of Finca La Julia are innovators in coffee. They always push their limits for the constant development of their farm and the coffees that they produce. From the beginning, we experience very noticeable changes in quality. It keeps on improving. It's perfect because specialty coffee consumers also keep seeking better tasting coffees each year.

With Finca La JULIA, we are in great hands. They produce excellent Colombian coffees and grow many of coffee varieties, while consistently increasing cup quality.

Written by: Neil Soque | Photos by: Finca La Julia