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Region: Huila, Colombia 
Producer: Marlon Bolaños / The Three Coffee Farmers 
Varietal: Gesha
Process: Washed: 48hrs held in cherry underwater in barrels, then fully drained and left to dry ferment further for another 48hrs, then fully washed and dried on raised beds for 10-15 days

Tasting notes: Yellow Fig, pineapple, bergamot

Producer info and cup notes:
As we near our 1 year anniversary of launching Shoebox, Colombia season is well underway and we are particularly interested in extremely high quality, advanced fermentation Geshas. This past harvest has truly brought us some of the best coffees we've ever had, and this fruit bomb from Marlon Bolaños's project "The Three Coffee Farmers" is amongst the best of them. Despite growing up in a coffee producing family, it wasn't until the age of 17 that Marlon took an interest in it, signing himself up for a Barista education course at SENA where he learned brewing, green coffee grading, and sensory analysis. Upon returning from that course, Marlon began planting differentiated varietals like pink bourbon, gesha, and chiroso while experimenting with new fermentation techniques on each subsequent harvest. Flash forward to today, and the farm is now owned by Marlon and his 2 brothers, Pedro and Hemerson. Marlon is responsible for quality control, fermentation protocols, sampling and part of the logistics operations. Marlon has also competed and won in several barista and brewing competitions over the last several years, taking spring water from his family's farm for brewing. It's especially suited for coffee due to the natural trace mineral composition, and now coveted by peers after earning the name "Champion's Water." This specific washed gesha lot has quite an interesting process to it, having been submerged in cherry underwater for 48 hours before being drained, left in the same barrels dry to further ferment naturally for 48 hours before being fully washed and dried on raised beds.

Region: Urrao, Colombia
Producer: Sergio
Varietal: Chiroso
Process: Washed

Tasting notes: Blue-raspberry, white tea, jasmine

Producer info and cup notes: 
In 2025, at just 26 years old, Sergio Caro won the Tierra de Diversidad competition in Colombia with his very first harvest. He started his coffee career learning in the Urrao producers co-operative championed by Unblended's team alongside producers like Viktor Pineda and Daniel Hernandez, who's coffees we've recently featured as intensely floral and fruited examples of the Chiroso production happening there. Sergio's farm Los Pinos sits at a soaring 2,400masl, providing an extremely unique microclimate with some of the highest growing altitudes in all of Colombia. At just half a hectare with only 4 employees, Sergio's operation is very tight-knit, well controlled, and highly quality focused, producing just under 1,000kg for the lot that ended up winning the Tierra De Diversidad competition. Due to the high elevation, the fermentation times used here are quite long, with a total of 72 hours held in cherry underwater still somehow yielding quite a clean cup as the end result. For drying, Los Pinos utilizes raised and shaded beds for optimal stability and slow drying, taking 2-3 weeks to reach their final moisture content targets. In the cup, we find an explosive process-related mixed berry tone reminiscent of blue-raspberry candy with a white tealike texture that carries with it tons of delicate florals. This coffee is quite flexible under both of our QC brewing methods, the washed and natural recipes, with the washed recipe highlighting the incredible fruited character, and the natural recipe focusing deeply on the florality, which presents as jasmine and bergamot.

Source: Unblended Coffee