Colombia Ticuna El Mirador Honey

     Finca El Mirador is owned and operated by Osito founders, Jose Jadir Losada and Kyle Bellinger. El Mirador is situated in the village of Picuma, just west of the beautiful Rio Suaza. When Kyle and Jose began their partnership at El Mirador, the farm was 11.7 hectares. Since then the farm has just about doubled to 23 hectares. The village of Picuma is special to the Osito family because Jose grew up there. En route to El Mirador, the Osito team will often stop and say hello to Jose's parents who live on the main road in Picuma. Although Jose now lives with his family in Garzon, Picuma will always be home. El Mirador has 2 year-round workers, one of whom is Jose's father-in-law, Carlos. However, during the harvest, El Mirador ramps their team up to about 25 pickers. Finding pickers in this region of Colombia is not an easy feat, as there is more lucrative work in coca (the plant from which cocaine is derived) in nearby Caquetá. Kyle and Jose hope to encourage pickers to step away from this industry through offering wages far above the national average. They produce both washed and natural coffees and have planted many different varieties. This castillo was created utilizing what’s called a lacto-honey process which uses lactic acid to provide an ideal environment for fermentation.  This helps to increase the fruity intensity and sweetness in the coffee.  Last year we had the natural processed version of this coffee which was much more fruit forward and Ethiopian like, this year we chose the honey processed lot that presents a much cleaner profile while still offering tons of sweetness and really enjoyable citrus and stone fruit notes.  This is a very gulpable coffee that's sweet, clean and easy drinking.  We're happy to be able to continue to purchase from El Mirador year after year, while offering something new and delicious as well.