This finca is named Sterling after a member of the mother’s family. The farm culminates at an altitude of nearly 1,600 metres, near Guacacallo in the municipality of Pitalito.
The Sterling finca grows both coffee and pitaya, also known as dragon fruit, as well as banana trees which provide shade for the coffee, yuccas and maize.
Water is quite scarce near the farm and the weather is colder than in the neighbouring regions, which is why Adriano ferments his coffees a little longer than average. He is receiving advice from a consultant agronomist on how to work the soil.
After picking, the cherries are de-pulped and fermented in silos for 12 hours, then in vats for 40 hours. The beans are washed and dried in greenhouses for 2 or 3 weeks. Adriano monitors this stage very closely, allowing air to circulate along the edges to dry the coffee more slowly.
Red Caturra microlot | Long fermentation
Adriano Cortez Sterling comes from a long line of coffee producers. His great-great-grandparents were pioneers decades ago, long before coffee became the main cultivated product in the Huila region. Today, Adriano grows coffee with his father and one of his three brothers, because the farm belongs to them all. Having spent four years learning about different harvesting, processing and drying methods in various regional cooperatives, Adriano has now changed his vision of coffee growing and begun cultivating different varieties, namely Caturra, Colombia and Castillo, on a little over 3 hectares. Today he owns some 1,700 Caturra coffee trees, which represent about 70% of his harvest. The remaining 30% is Colombia coffee.
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