Colombia - La Esperanza Wush Wush

Brothers Elias and Shady Bayter implement coffee development projects focused on empowering smallholder farmers in their home department, Tolima, with updated knowledge to diversify the flavor profiles their coffees can offer. This leads to an increase in their crops' quality and market value. They also proactively connect with international specialty coffee roasters to match their own and their partners' coffees with the appropriate consumers. Through these connections, they enable the two ends of the coffee value chain to get the fullest benefit.

Argemiro Hernandez of La Esperanza farm is one of Elias and Shady’s partners. He cultivates exotic varieties like Geisha, Wush Wush, and Java in his farm, which is located on the Conbeima Canyon, near Tolima’s capital Ibague. He is focused on producing nano-lots for every variety. In consultation with the Bayter brothers, he has assimilated alternative processing techniques into his protocols resulting in differentiated cup profiles. During the Ibague Cafe Festival in November 2022, his Wush Wush micro-lot qualified him as one of the ten top producers in Tolima.


The Exporter

Forest Coffee is a platform established by Elias and Shady Bayter for their local farming communities to share best practices, and for their coffee to gain world recognition and better benefit from the international market. They celebrate the time-honored Colombian tradition of producing high-quality coffee by fusing legacy knowledge with innovative techniques.

The infrequent availability of Wush Wush in very small batches has given it an air of mystery and built a sense of ongoing anticipation among specialty coffee lovers. What is known is that this variety originated from an eponymous town in Ethiopia famed for its tea estates, and then found its way to coffee-growing countries in Latin America, such as Panama and Colombia.

The Wush Wush cup profile is reputed to have Geisha-like qualities and complexity, but with potential for a broader flavor spectrum, intensified sweetness, and a more viscous body.

In their collaboration, the Bayter brothers and Argemiro used a washed anaerobic process for this nano-lot. Cherry was pre-fermented for 24 hours in Grain Pro bags, and then proceeded to submerged anaerobic fermentation in mucilage for another 48 hours. Drying was done for 8-12 hours daily for a period of 25 days. It resulted in pronounced florality with a nuanced acidity.