Santa Mónica, Colombia — Washed Espresso

At Santa Mónica, just outside Armenia in Colombia’s Quindío region, Jairo Arcilia grows Caturra on volcanic ash soils shaped by altitude, rainfall, and cool mountain air. This is a landscape where coffee ripens slowly and evenly, allowing sweetness and clarity to develop without force. Caturra — a compact mutation of Bourbon — thrives here, its small stature lending itself to careful picking and close attention in the field. While the variety has fallen out of favour in much of Colombia due to disease pressure, at Santa Mónica it remains a quiet strength: expressive, transparent, and finely tuned to place.  

Harvest at Santa Mónica follows strict ripeness selection, with cherries transported to the Arcila family’s La Pradera processing centre for sorting and flotation before fermentation. The coffee undergoes a carefully calibrated 30-hour underwater fermentation — long enough to encourage complexity, but restrained enough to preserve freshness and balance. After pulping and washing, water is recycled and treated through a natural filtration system before being returned to the land, and the parchment is dried slowly to a precise moisture range. The process is deliberate rather than decorative: a washed coffee handled with intention, where technique serves clarity rather than imprinting itself on the cup.  

In the cup, the result is composed and generous. Brown sugar sweetness forms the backbone, carrying soft apricot and mandarin notes with a clean, citrus-tinged lift. There is brightness without sharpness, sweetness without weight — a coffee that feels settled and complete rather than showy. It’s a clear expression of Caturra grown well and processed with restraint: precise, balanced, and quietly confident, offering pleasure through harmony rather than excess.