Colombia Manos Juntas Micromill

The Manos Juntas micromill was set up by a Colombian coffee exporter to encourage and reward quality-focussed producers and to produce outstanding, traceable microlots. 

The anaerobic natural processing method used with this particular lot brings out notes of blueberry, strawberry, mango, passionfruit and lime.

The cherries are placed in large, air-tight tanks for a five day anaerobic fermentation. Nitrogen gas is then injected into the tanks to stimulate the naturally occurring microbes on the coffee cherries.

Once the desired pH level has been reached, the cherries are cooled to 20 degrees Celsius to halt the fermentation. The cherries then rest in the tanks for five days, before being moved to drying beds in solar drying tunnels for 30 days.

Once the moisture level reaches 10-12%, samples are milled, roasted and cupped, and the dried cherries are milled on site and prepared for export. 

Set in the Sotarà area of Colombia’s Cauca region, Manos Juntas purchases cherries from local farmers with an emphasis placed on overall weight rather than volumetric units. This incentivises the picking of riper, and therefore heavier, coffee cherries. This simple metric encourages better harvesting practices and directly correlates to quality. For this extra work the mill guarantees producers fixed pricing well above the market value with payment upfront rather than usual 30-40 waiting period.