About the producer
Café Uba is a Colombian coffee business model created in 2014 by Mr. Julio Cesar Madrid, a traditional coffee grower and third-generation coffee farmer in his family, dedicated to managing his family’s coffee farms. Motivated by the desire to create a coffee company different from the traditional ones in Colombia, he decided to innovate and transform the coffee production of his farms into specialty coffees on his three farms: Riviera, Milán, and Buenos Aires. He began by planting different coffee varieties and developing various fermentation types, which would lead to differentiation and high quality in the sensory profiles of the coffees.
The producers have focused on controlling the quality of the coffee fermentation processes, and thanks to this, they’ve determined the ideal fermentation times for each of the varieties, as well as the drying protocols using different systems and techniques. After years of experience in coffee fermentation, at UBA, they’ve designed different fermentation processes adapted to different varieties.
Today, the acquired experience, combined with the good environmental conditions of our crops, has allowed them to win various quality awards for coffee both nationally and internationally, also winning in different barista championships around the world. Café Uba has three coffee farms located in Risaralda in, Colombia, totaly more than 200 hectares cultivated with coffee, with around one million coffee plants and more than 20 different coffee varieties.
About the farm
The Riviera, Milán, and Buenos Aires farms are located in the municipalities of Pereira and Santa Rosa de Cabal, in the Risaralda farm in the region of the Coffee Cultural Landscape in the spur of the central Andes mountain range with high influence from the Santa Isabel and Ruiz snow-capped mountains. Due to this, along with the mountainous terrain and petrographic and climatic variability, these soils have not completed their pedogenetic development, meaning they are young soils. According to Soil Taxonomy, they belong to the orders Entisols, Inceptisols, and Andisols.
The young soils, rich in organic matter, combined with the specific environment of this area, a few hours of light due to the high presence of clouds extending the fruit maturation period, and the wide thermal range, where daytime temperatures can reach up to 30 degrees Celsius and drop to 15 degrees Celsius at night, allow our coffee to develop complex and unique flavours. The Riviera farm is located at an altitude of 1,700 metres above sea level, the Milán farm at 1,400 metres above sea level, and the Buenos Aires farm at 1,500 metres above sea level.
About the varietal
The Sudan Rume variety at Finca la Riviera has been established for 11 years. This variety is characterised by a copper colour in its leaves, tall plants, and elongated beans. It belongs to an Ethiopian/Sudanese family. This microlot was fermented in a controlled process by using the Bioreactor. The coffee was inoculated with a yeast called Kazachstania humilis to maximize the aromatic expression and achieve a clean cup.
First the cherries were collected and selected manualy priorizing just the ripe berries. Right after the picking the cherries, they’re floated and controlled again for securing the quality of the fruits. In a second step we start with the first phase of the fermentation process by letting the coffee ferment for 24 hours so the aromatic compostitions will potentialize the intracellular structure of the bean.
Then the cherries are depulped and put in the hermetic bioreactor for a specific process which allows to control the critical parts of the fermentation. During the fermentation insight the bioreactor, three fundamental parameters are set and cotrolled:
– Temperature 22-24°C
– pH of 3.6-3.9
– Pressure of 3 bar
On top we enrich the atmosphere with Nitrogen (N₂). And now the inoculation takes places by adding the yeast Kazachstania humilis into the bioreactor. This yeast was selected for the potential of producing complex aromatic metabolism and adding cleanliness to the cup. This process will take 36 hours under the stable conditions mentioned before.
Once finalized the process in the Bioreactor, the coffee is removed and washed carefully. In this way we make sure to stop any further fermentation or activity going on. The ‘Pergamino’ is dried in a dezumidificator for aproximately 20 days. The process ends by reching a stable moisture between 10-12%.
