Colombia El Vergel Guava Banana

Where in the world?

What’s the story?

Around three months ago, we had a impromptu visit from pioneering coffee producer Shady Bayter, who was on a whistle stop tour of a few Uk roasteries and we ended up with
a stunning impromptu cupping of exquisite coffees. Shady’s passion and vision for his coffee and for other producers in the Fresno area of Tolima, Colombia was inspiring. So it did seem rude not to pick up a couple of stunners!

It’s so satisfying when a great story marries up with a tasty tasty coffee and this is a perfect example. Guava Banana hits all those funky tropical fruit sweet notes, and importantly it’s really nicely structured which always gives these big fruity coffees their X factor. On the cup, it’s full of that tropical fruit funk, unmistakable ripe pineapple and cola cube flavours, with a raspberry and vanilla finish. These flavours carry through as an espresso, with the addition of a delicious cream soda note.

The Guava Banana is one of the flagship projects of Shady and his brother Elias, with a coffee flavour profile designed to be one the most fruity and intense produced by El Vergel estate.
The brothers planted more than 40,000 red and yellow caturra varietal plants between 2016 and 2018 (Im sure they had some help,like) all grown on a microlot surrounded by Guava trees. This terroir makes for coffee cherries jam packed with fruity flavours, which are then enhanced by Shady and Elias’ commitment to innovative processing techniques.

The Guava Banana is a natural anaerobic process, in which coffee cherries are placed in sealed plastic tanks. Oxygen is forced out through a valve in the tanks as CO2 is released during the fermentation process. The cherries are then left sealed in the tanks until the desired flavour profile is reached. This is then followed by a careful series of drying phases, in which moisture levels are gradually brought down before a final drying phase of 45 days which stabilises the processed beans allowing for all that wonderful potential flavour to rest safe and sound until they reach our roaster.

We love this coffee and we love the passion and enthusiasm Shady shows for his family farm, and for helping other producers in their region. Guava Banana is a fruit bomb of a coffee as well as being a great name which is awesome to chant!

This Red & Yellow Caturra is one of the flagship coffees produced at El Vergel State, located in the micro lot next to the washing station, and surrounded by Guava trees, this coffee profile has been one of the most intense and fruity coffees developed by the estate. Planted in 2016 and 2018 with a quantity of more than 40,000 plants, this lot has been one of the best of the estate to experiment with processing bigger lots.

Brewing Recipe