
El Ajial
El Ajial is a tiny 3 hectare plot where Luis Alfredo Lopez grows coffee perched on a steep mountainside in Buesaco, in Colombia’s mountainous Nariño region. We have come to appreciate coffees from Nariño over many years, for their dense sweetness and intense, concentrated flavours in the cup, with a high degree of clarity. Incredibly high altitudes, often over 2000 masl, and excellent sun exposure mean sugar-rich, slow-matured coffee cherries, with ample fuel for fermentation and roasting to create complexity and intensity.
The Lopez Family
Luis’ family have grown coffee outside the village of Medina Orjuela for generations. Luis inherited his small plot from his father 20 years ago. His father was his main mentor in coffee, alongside his older cousin Jesus Angel Lopez. They instilled the importance of quality in Luis, aiming for the high prices of the speciality coffee market. Alongside that, Luis tries to maintain the traditional ‘campesino’ lifestyle; keeping a cow on the farm for milk and fertilisation, and growing food crops among the coffee trees, including corn, avocado and nitrogen-fixing legumes.
A careful process
This lot is of the Caturra varietal, processed using a washed method. The cherries are floated for density, before de-pulping. Parchment coffee is then placed in open tanks for 24 hours, before drying on raised beds for 2-3 weeks. This careful fermentation translates the potential of these intensely sweet Nariño cherries into a bright and complex profile, with notes of tropical mango, while holding on to the crisp red berry acidity we’ve tasted from so many high altitude Nariño coffees.