The Department of Bolivar was one of the original nine states of The United States of Colombia. It extends roughly north south from the Caribbean near the mouth of the Magdalena River down to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountain range. This regional coffee is grown on individual farms then brought to the Racafe owned collection centre. It is here that the coffee cherries are wet processed using Eco-mills which use less water that the traditional mills. The beans are then graded and blended to maintain consistency of flavour and profile. Jim and I blind tasted four different Colombian coffees and agreed that this was the superior cup. We tried it as both an espresso and as a pour-through, the latter tasted more rounded and with better body. The cultivars that produce this coffee are Castillo, Catimor, Caturra, Colombia, and Cenicafe 1. Cultivar Cenicafe 1 is a new variety, the result of 20 years of plant breeding and rigorous selection from a cross between Caturra and Timor Hybrid 1343, first planted in 2016.
