El Embrujo, Colombia

The name “embrujo” comes from the Spanish word for “spell.”

Ignacio believes that truly excellent specialty coffee will evoke the “magic of coffee” for drinkers. To this end, he is focused on transitioning from traditional agriculture to a more specialty focus. El Embrujo - Shaman is a profile-driven blend. Processing has been designed to achieve a particular flavour profile. Ignacio is making changes to ensure the highest quality and most sustainable processing is transitioning to lower water-use processing, like this Carbonic Maceration Natural. He has a host of environmentally-focused techniques to minimize waste and improve production and he's always looking to improve. He saves the pulp from processing his washed process coffees and applies it to coffee trees as fertilizer. He is planning to use vermiculture to further process pulp into nutrient-rich fertilizers. Water from processing is used to irrigate his corn crops. The processing operation is fueled entirely by renewable energy from solar panels.  

Coffee is selectively handpicked by laborers. A “patron” oversees picking to ensure only ripe, red cherry is selected. To ensure the highest quality cherry, Ignacio pays harvesters above the going rate.  

Once at the on-farm processing center, cherry is floated to remove over or under-ripes and then transported to moving belts where women hand sort cherry, removing any damaged cherry.  

Cherry is placed in stainless steel tanks and CO2 is injected into the tanks. The tanks, installed in 2022, can hold up to 4,000 kgs of cherry. Most processors in Colombia use 20kg plastic barrels for fermentation, so this larger capacity tank has the potential to create much more uniform extended fermentation lots.  

Typically, during fermentation, microbes ingest oxygen and emit CO2. When CO2 is injected, the microbes that consume CO2 become more active and that creates a different flavor profile that=n typically aerobic microbes. Cherry ferments in this CO2-rich environment for 120 to 140 hours.  

Cherry is dried in mechanical dryers. Using mechanical dryers enables Ignacio to control the temperature and makes it possible for him to process coffee consistently on a larger scale. Once dried, coffee is placed in Grainpro bags and rested before being prepared for export.