Ecuador - Santa Gertrudis - Anaerobic Natural - Sidra

Hacienda Santa Gertrudis is relatively new to the specialty coffee game in Ecuador - having a strong history in coffee, but less focus on quality. This is something Jose Luis is changing in big leaps. 

The farm is located just outside of Loja, near Vilcabamba, in the south east of Ecuador. The climate here is very helpful to growing great coffee, being quite warm in summer, and having predictable rainfalls, which helps both growing, and drying of the coffees. 

Jose Luis is brilliant at the work he does at the farm - and started off by planting several different varieties, including Caturra, SL28, Bourbon, Sidra, and Geisha all over his land. He has spent a lot of effort in systematically improving his processing, and has it really under control. 

This lot is his Sidra, a variety that grows very well in the contrasting environment of Loja, with dry winters and wet summers. Jose Luis has done a special processing for this lot, involving an anaerobic fermentation in cherry, in tanks. This is carriedo ut to bring brighter fruit characteristics to the Sidra. It's then dried initially in thick layers, then thin layers as it's drying on raised beds in a humidity controlled drying room. This special drying gives a very clean finish and profile despite being dried in cherry.