Watch our farm tour and interview with Edward Sandoval, a small producer in Colombia’s Tolima region growing many unique coffee varieties.
We were introduced to Edward Sandoval’s coffee a few years back by way of a Colombian exporter who’s been our main source in the country. At that time we were shown a Chiroso"Chiroso" is the name given to a unique variety of coffee rediscovered in Colombia in the early 2000's, and is still mostly limited to the country. Originally thought... ...more varietyA botanical variety is a rank in the taxonomic hierarchy below the rank of species and subspecies and above the rank of form (form / variety / subspecies... ...more separation that stunned us at the cuppingCupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest.... ...more table. The cup flavors stood out next to the other coffees; both tea-likeA term used to describe coffees with light, tannic, slighly astringent mouthfeel and tea aromatics. We find it in some Rwandan flavor profiles, among others. ...more and fruitedIn some coffee taster’s lexicon, “fruity” means the coffee is tainted with fruit, and “fruited” means a coffee is graced by positive fruit notes. We don't exactly see... ...more, with intoxicating aromatics. It wasn’t until a couple years later that we had the pleasure of visiting Edward, and were excited to learn of his veritable coffee nursery where he’s growing many other exotic coffee varieties.
Edward was raised on a Tolima coffee farm, however his passion for cultivating coffee came much later. He left home as a young adult to attend school, where among other things, he studied agronomyScience and study of crops and soils: A branch of agriculture dealing with field-crop production, soil management and physiology of crop plants as its focus. ...more. He went on to work as a field technician for the Federacion Nacional de Cafeteros (“FNC”), and then in coffee quality control for various cooperatives and exporters. It was during this time away from the farm that he took an interest in the unique flavors different coffee varieties can produce.
Still, he did not see a role for himself in coffee farming. In fact, he told us that when his father eventually called him to ask for help at the family farm, his heart sank! But with his newly acquired knowledge of cultivating different coffee varieties with a focus on quality, Edward eventually found his passion back where he started in Tolima.
He and his wife, Jerly, saved their money to expand his family’s land into what is now FincaSpanish 101: Finca is the Spanish word for farm. Sometimes the term Hacienda is used to imply an Estate, which would mean the farm has its own wet-mill.... ...more Canta Ranas, or the “singing frogs”. The reason for the name is obvious if you’re at the farm til dusk, when a chorus of croaking frogs breaks the still mountain air, a din so loud that Edward says it can be difficult to sleep! We don’t doubt him having heard it firsthand.
Finca Canta Ranas is 13 hectaresWe use this metric term often to discuss the size of coffee farms. 1 Hectare = 10000 Square Meters = 2.471 acres: We use this metric term often... ...more in total, with most of the farm planted in Chiroso. While Chiroso is now found throughout ColombiaColombian coffee is highly marketed and widely available in the US. They have been largely successful at equating the name Colombian Coffee with "Good" Coffee. This is half-true.... ...more, it was first discovered in the northern Antioquia region of Urrao. Or “rediscovered” is perhaps more appropriate. Genetic testing suggests Chiroso is linked to EthiopiaEthiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia, or a coffee cultivar: Ethiopia, or more specifically the Empire under Haile Selassie, was known as Abyssinia. The name is Latin, derived from... ...more landrace variety, and how it wound up in Colombia is a bit of a mystery.
Like a lot of us, Edward’s exposure to Chiroso was by way of the winning entry at the 2014 Cup of ExcellenceThe Cup of Excellence is a competition held yearly in many coffee-producing countries, designed to highlight the very best coffees from each origin.: The Cup of Excellence (COE)... ...more (“COE”) competition, submitted by an Antioquian coffee farmer named Doña Carmen Montoya, from Urrao. At that time, Edward was working in Medellín for a government project to promote the coffee of Antioquia (Antioquia Origen Cafés Especiales), and Doña Carmen’s Chiroso brought an unplanned spotlight to the DepartmentA Department is the term used in some Latin American countries for a State or County. For example, Huila Department is the state in the South of Colombia. ...more, and Urrao specifically.
The distinctive flavors of her coffee were nothing like the Caturra’s and Bourbon’s it competed against, and the elongated canoe-shaped beans also set it apart. Similar to the splash that GeshaGesha is a long-bean Ethiopia selection with unique cup character. Gesha is the name of the town in Western Ethiopia where the original samples were collected. Spelling it... ...more made at Panama’s COE a decade earlier (though perhaps to lesser effect), the Chiroso variety caught the attention of the Specialty coffeeSpecialty coffee was a term devised to mean higher levels of green coffee quality than average "industrial coffee" or "commercial coffee". At this point, the term is of... ...more world, and soon spread to farms throughout the country. That it is also a highly productive plant made it particularly appealing to Edward, and a big part of why he’s chosen to plant more than half of his farm in Chiroso.
Canta Ranas is located in a part of Tolima called, “Santa Isabel”. Ironically, this area is not really known for coffee production. The lush landscape of Santa Isabel has made it a source of produce, like beans and passion fruit, as well as cattle farming. The altitude is also slightly lower than some of the more well known Tolima sources, like Chapparal, and China Alta.
Edward’s spent the last few years renovating the farmland, and in addition to Chiroso, has planted small plots of Gesha, Moka, JavaThere are several types of Abyssinia variety coffee, but they are not from Ethiopia but rather Indonesia. Abyssinia 3 = AB3. PJS Cramer, a Dutch plant researcher, introduced this variety... ...more, and Pink BourbonA variant of Bourbon that ripens to a pink color, versus a red color. As a variant, it is not really a coffee variety, but simply a mutation... ...more. The low part of farm is 1830 meters above sea level, and is planted in small purple passionfruitA very aromatic fruit used for juice, or to eat directly. In coffee it can be found in the aroma and flavor of Gesha coffee, and some Colombias:... ...more “gulupa”, as well as beans. The coffee is grown closer to his farmhouse, which sits right around 1900 meters.
While tending to the farm takes up most of his time during the harvest, he also stays in touch with his quality control background by cupping every process batch he processes. Edward’s set up a small coffee lab upstairs in his home, with a small propane sample roaster for roasting small batches. He says it helps him establish consistency in his processingThe removal of the cherry and parchment from the coffee seed.: Coffee is either wet-processed (also called washed or wet-milled) or dry-processed (also called wild, natural or natural... ...more, and affords him in a unique vantage point for managing quality.
We’ve been buying Edward’s Chiroso for more than 5 years now, and have also bought small amounts of Wush WushThis unique coffee variety can be traced back to the town of "Wushwush", Ethiopia, only a few kilometers from Bonga forest in Kafa. It is purported to be... ...more, Gesha, and Moka.