About Yesid Florez of Colombia

Yesid and the fellow CDNT members live and farm in a very remote and geographically stunning area near the towns of Villahermosa and Casabianca in northern Tolima. Although the area has all the right characteristics for specialty coffee production, due to its remoteness, specialty coffee buyers, until recently, had not established business with the region’s producers.

Coffee in this area has traditionally been sold to FNC (Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia) buying stations where it is treated as a commodity rather than as a differentiated, specialty product. This commodification prevented the area from standing out as a unique region with specific terroir-driven characteristics.

In response to this, CDNT was formed, with help of our friend Herbert Peñaloza and LaREB (our Colombian export partner), as a quality-focused group of producers who collectively work to improve coffee quality in the area. The members individually produce, process and dry their coffees and the collective element is seen in resource pooling and sharing, collective purchasing and bargaining and, the open and free sharing of information between the members to increase the quality of coffees produced by the group.

LaREB helps with quality initiatives and acts as the marketing agent for the group to bring the coffee to roasters in North America and Europe who look to pay good prices for high quality coffees.

Yesid and his fellow CDNT members focus on sustainable agricultural practices, careful and detail-oriented harvesting, and artisan processing techniques to produce coffees that reflect the distinct origin characteristics of their surrounding region.

This coffee was produced using the fed-batch, washed processing method. This method starts with in-cherry fermentation upon delivery of the coffee cherries to the wet-mill. After a 24 hour in-cherry fermentation, the coffee is then de-pulped and allowed to ferment by dry-mass, open-air fermentation in a fermentation tank. The following day, more coffee is delivered to the wet-mill where it is allowed to ferment in-cherry before being de-pulped and mixed with the already fermenting coffee from the day(s) before. This process feeds more sugar to the already fermenting coffee. This allows for an extended, healthy fermentation. The in-cherry fermentation results in increased fruited and winey characteristics in the coffee and the extended open-air, dry-mass fermentation after de-pulping increases complexity, body and sweetness in the coffee.