Nestor Lasso Ombligon

Key Coffee Info:

Origin: Colombia

Farm: El Diviso

Process: Natural

Variety: Ombligon

Altitude: 1750 MASL

Importer: Cata

Harvest: 2023

Per-Kilogram green price: £26

Amount purchased: 70kg

Producer info:
In 2018, Nestor Lasso and his brother Adrian took over the family farm and branched out into specialty coffee and experimentation. Today, the two brothers have teamed up with Jhoan Vergara, also the child of a coffee farmer, to merge their family farms to create El Diviso. The team partnered with Cata Export to bring their experimental processes on speciality coffee to new parts of the world.

The Ombligon variety is fairly new, it is named after its elongated shape, with a distinct belly button nodule on the base. It is resistant to leaf rust and relatively dense with fewer floaters found in fermentation tanks. It’s thought by many to be related to an Ethiopian Heirloom variety, however more research needs to be done to be conclusive.

Processing:

Step 1. The cherries are picked at optimal maturity stage, with brix degrees ranging between  21 - 24 degrees. 

Step 2. The cherries are  put into open plastic tanks and are left oxidising for 48 hours. During these 48h, the coffee must (juice or extract produced during the oxidation) is constantly being recirculated. the coffee must is monitored and analysed to make sure that it is at 19 brix degrees and that the ph doesn’t fall under 5.

Step 3. All the cherries are emptied in a tank of cold water and the ones that stay afloat (unripe, lower density, broca infected etc…) are manually removed.

Step 4. The cherries are then rinsed with water heated at 50° c  (thermal shock) to loosen their molecular structure and kickstart the fermentation process before being transferred into airtight plastic bins to and start their anaerobic process. Before closing the lid of the tank, brewers’ yeast is sprayed on the cherries at a ratio of 1:5 (1 gr yeast / 5kg cherries) diluted in 32°c water. The cherries are left fermenting for 38 hours whilst endemic microorganisms and the added yeast multiply.

Step 5. the cherries are then mechanically dried for approximately 12 hours to dehydrate as fast as possible and reached 18% moisture content.

Step 6. the cherries are placed in closed plastic bags and left to stabilise for 2 days in a dark room.

Step 7. the cherries are placed in marquesinas to finish the drying process for approximately 15 days until reaching 10.5-11.5% moisture content.