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Traditional Washed NW Capolcuahutitan
3240.78Mexico National Winners
US$6.00/lb
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Winner: Wataru & Co., Ltd.
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Hidden among the mountain cloud forests and the fog characteristic of the Sierra Norte de Puebla, thrives one of the region's most well-known trees, the capulín. Thanks to this feature in the area, the farm is named Capolcuahutitan, originating from the Nahuatl language, meaning “place in the middle of capulín trees” (capollin: capulín, cuahuitl: tree, and titan: place in the middle of).
This property has been in constant production for 25 years, starting with the planting of native varieties (Typica) and Mondo Novo, complemented by chalahuite trees for shade. Over time, these were progressively replaced by new medium-sized varieties, particularly Caturra and Garnica.
However, in the last 10 years, both varieties have been vulnerable to the advance of coffee leaf rust and the intensification of the dry season in the region, which affects the quality of the harvest. Faced with this new challenge, new rust-resistant and heat-tolerant varieties, such as Costa Rica 95 and Oro Azteca, are being sought. Oro Azteca, in particular, has yielded the best results.
The new coffee plants have been sourced from an in-house nursery for the past 7 years. In addition to the two aforementioned varieties, two new ones, Colombiana and Sarchimor, are also produced. Jinicuil seedlings are being grown as substitutes for the chalahuite trees, which have recently been increasingly affected by an insect plague that eats their foliage and dries them out.
Throughout the year, three weedings are performed with a machete (one every four months), and fertilizer is applied twice a year: once shortly before the first harvest (December-January) and again between June-July after the first summer rains. The formula used is a physical mixture of 18-12-06 in its granular form, along with the application of dolomitic lime every three years. In the steep areas of the farm, individual terraces are built for each plant along each furrow.
Pruning is done after the harvest season with pruning shears, removing dry and diseased parts. If the damage is severe or the plant has low productivity since its first planting, it is cut at the base of the stem (stump pruning). When the suckers sprout from the stumped coffee plant, thinning is done, keeping 2 or 3 shoots. Only two stump prunings are allowed throughout the coffee plant’s lifecycle.
Starting with manual harvesting, care is taken to ensure the cherries are uniformly ripe, and the bundles are handled carefully to be pulped as soon as possible, preventing run-off and fermentation of the fruit. The pulping and mechanical demucilaging processes are carried out simultaneously through an ecological module.
On a clean concrete floor, the freshly washed coffee is laid out and stored in a clean, dry room. This process is repeated until the beans are hard when bitten, the protective cover comes off without the parchment, and they have a color similar to cow horns. When these conditions are met, the dried coffee is passed through a fan and then through a screen to remove excess parchment, small, hollow, and broken beans. Once finished, the parchment coffee is stored in clean jute bags sewn with raffia thread by hand, then stacked on wooden pallets to avoid contact with the floor and walls.
| Boxes: | 8 |
|---|---|
| Score: | 87.05 |
| Variety: | Oro Azteca, Costa Rica 95 |
| Weight: | 540.13 |
| Process: | Washed |
| Region: | Puebla |
| Rank: | Traditional Washed |