Technical coffee innovation at Finca El Corozal

“Growing and producing specialty coffee is an opportunity for us to live with dignity and for this reason, we do it with passion and discipline” – Delfín Carvajal

Well spoken, isn't it?! The next coffee story is about our latest addition - an espresso special from Colombia called El Corozal!

The Fincas

Finca El Corozal is situated in Garzón, Huila at an altitude of 1500 meters. The owner is an ambitious man named Delfín Carvajal.

Driven mainly by his curiosity and entrepreneurial mindset, Delfín is also an admirable coffee talent!

Delfín has 20,000 coffee plants on its 3 hectares of land, the main varieties of which are Caturra, Castillo and Colombia.

Delfín participated in the 2020 Huila Mágico Competition organized by our partner The Coffee Quest in Colombia and the coffee that entered was ranked in the Top 10!

It's a family affair

The farm is part of a family history of 4 generations. Finca El Corozal belongs to the Carvajal-Castiblanco family (this is the family of Delfín and his wife), but it is managed by Delfín's brother: Euclides Carvajal.

Finca El Corozal was originally created by 7 brothers, who bought the first hectares in 2004, after which they continued to expand the farm.

A fun challenge

Delfín's main priority is to optimize space and time during the drying process of its high quality coffee. He does this by preserving all physical and organoleptic (everything you can taste and smell) characteristics.

That is why he started to focus on mechanical drying (instead of drying on drying beds, for example), but this required money. How he accomplished this is worth telling.

Delfín was able to obtain seed capital as a loan from the state, which he did not have to repay as long as all the requirements of the project are met.

That is why he formulated the project on four basic studies: market, technical, financial and organisational.

With the help of an expert, Delfín decided to make certain technical adjustments aimed at preserving the quality of the beans during the mechanical drying process.

This innovation alone was enough for the approval of the project and thus the disbursement of the loan. Indeed, it was shown that this project would have an impact on one of the most important economic sectors of the country; coffee.

For a year, Delfín received continuous follow-ups from auditors to see if this project was still being maintained within the company over time.

Of course it was and it is still a great success. Partly because his goal has been to expand his entrepreneurial activities in favor of specialty coffee production.

Coffee innovation!

What exactly does this special process entail? The bottom line is that the coffee cherries are in berry form for 14 hours, then on solar dryers for an average of 8-12 days and then mechanically dried at 36 °C for 32 hours.

An eye for the environment

Of course Finca El Corozal also has an eye for the environment and in 2009 they obtained the Rainforest Alliance certification.

They do not allow any hunting or burning activities, carefully monitor the water system during the 'washing' of the coffee, reuse or transform the by-product into compost and avoid chemicals for pest and disease control as much as possible.

Together you go further

For our importer it is nice to work with a determined coffee farmer whose passion is to continuously improve and to find and implement better techniques that really make an impact.

In addition, Delfín has also started a network with more than 20 members from the same area. Everyone is committed to planting different species, which in turn is good for biodiversity. This is also a super motivation for every other coffee farmer to gain a greater benefit in the local economy.

Hence the quote at the beginning of this coffee story .

Nice to highlight such a technical side of coffee, right? It's great that entrepreneurs like Delfín are motivated to do this and our partner stimulates this by offering a fair price for these beautiful coffees.

Did you get excited? Then quickly taste this coffee with taste notes of melon, peach and caramel. You can find the coffee here .