La Cabaña
Under this profile we would like to introduce you to the family farm La Cabaña and with it Libardo and William Ortiz. All the Ortiz family are coffee farmers and they are divine. It all started with Libardo Ortiz’s father, the grandfather of the clan. Coffee farming was then taken over by Libardo Ortiz, a super gentleman who leads all his children to love coffee. We at Chicas started a few years ago by working with William Ortiz, one of his sons, and have gradually expanded our shopping list to include other coffees, both from Mr. Libardo and his other son Julian. Each of them has a slightly different approach to coffee and we enjoy it immensely.
We interviewed William to find out more about La Cabaña Farm:
“The farm has been in the family for two generations, the family moved to the Huila area and started making coffee around 1965. Since 2009 we have owned this particular farm, which is also our home. At the moment, my brother Julian, my dad and my mom and I are farming. With a lot of effort and working together, we have achieved our secondary technical education in coffee while always helping with the work related to the farm.”
He continues his story, “I am the representative of the third generation of coffee farmers after my grandparents and parents. From as far back as I can remember, I have always been surrounded by coffee, understanding the whole process of growing coffee, from selecting the beans, germinating them, planting them on the plantation to growing them to their full potential, but little understanding of the business itself. That was always handled by adults, in my case my father. Although I grew up around coffee from a young age, like most of my peers, I wanted to leave the countryside for the city. In our country, we have limited opportunities for development in the countryside, and this is doubly true for coffee growing, because we live in dependence on very volatile prices. It is often the farmer who takes away that uncertainty, which is why I wanted nothing to do with coffee growing as a child, because I felt that the results of my efforts were never seen. When I was about 15 years old, I took my first courses on coffee production and became interested in growing a variety of coffees.
I am still taking courses and training. Improving the quality of the coffee flavor profile has always been a priority for me, so I started looking into different fermentation processes. But I have to say that it’s not easy to change the way our parents think, although I understand that, given that they have only ever been in touch with traditional approaches. That means planting coffee, growing it and selling it at the price that is on offer. I see it as a mistake that we are not looking for the added value that coffee can offer, and that has become very interesting to me. Little by little, with a lot of effort and determination, we are seeing the first results. I am already taking care of my own coffee trees, I can afford a piece of land and have a few trees for myself and my brother. This gives me enough freedom to start experimenting with new fermentation processes, which have started to give us better flavor results. Today, in particular, I continue the process of standardizing these fermentations.”
COUNTRY
Colombia
REGION
Bruselas, Huila
FARM
Finca La Cabaña
ALTITUDE
1600 – 1700 m
SIZE OF THE FARM
8 ha
COFFEE VARIETIES
Caturra, Pink Bourbon, Colombia, Castillo, Geisha
ABOUT THE FARM
The Huila region is now one of the most famous among coffee lovers and it was here that our plans to establish Chicas Industry first began to take shape. We first visited the region in March 2019 and fell in love with the place. Especially the area around Bruselas, a small town near the tourist and coffee-famous city of San Agustin. San Agustin is, among other things, one of the largest coffee producers in the entire region. Moreover, much of the coffee surprises with its quality and the farmers with their knowledge and technological equipment. Various associations and associations have been set up among the farmers and it is no problem to taste the coffee directly from the farmer.
“At the moment, Mr. Ortiz and his wife and their two oldest sons are farming.”
“The farm has been in the family for the second generation, the family moved to the area and started to make coffee sometime in 1965. Since 2009 they have owned this particular farm, which is also their home. At the moment, Mr. Ortiz and his wife and their two eldest sons are farming. As William himself describes, “with a lot of effort and working together, we achieved our secondary technical education in coffee while always helping with the work related to the farm.”
ABOUT THE PROCESSES
William is a big-hearted experimenter. He is very committed to lactic and carbonic fermentations. He gets inspired on social media and in training sessions. And why is he doing all this? Because he enjoys it, but also to bring out the best in the coffees grown on the family farm. What he enjoys most is fermenting with added microorganisms, called lactobacilli. But he also works with washed processes. You won’t get bored with his coffee!
LOT CO-23-005 Pink Bourbon - washed
This lot has its own distinctive story. We selected it together with the Pikola Roastery for their origin trip at the end of 2023. Moreover, it is a lot that we bought twice. How so? Because at Pitalito, Huila, our partners at Memories Coffee were hosting a great team competition and asked us Chicas to help them out. Memories came up with a team contest concept called Roast & Press, where teams of two all get the same coffee. One of them roasts it on Saturday, the other uses it to make an aeropress the next day and competes to see who makes the best one.
How does our coffee relate to this? On behalf of Chicas, we contributed a prize to the competition for the first three places, which was just unprocessed parchment coffee. And because we wanted to bring it full circle, we bought this coffee from William Ortiz, who we have been working with for a long time.
First and second place were young baristas and coffee enthusiasts from Pitalito. This lot, the Pink Bourbon was really great and caught our eye and Piccolo’s attention, so we bought it again from William. For Jirka from Pikola, this lot is also a reminder of the competition itself, as he also presented at Pitalito at the Roast & Press.
Processing: the lot consists of 70% Pink Bourbon and 30% Bourbon Ají. The coffee cherries were carefully picked and washed, called flote. The cherries were then left to ferment for 36 hours in closed plastic bags. After this first fermentation, the coffee was peeled and fermented again without air in closed plastic bags for 70 hours. It was then left to dry directly, without further washing. It was dried slowly, gradually, over a period of 20 days on the covered roof of the farm.
LOT CO-23-072 Ortiz family Pink bourbon W
Bouron Rosado, or Pink Bourbon from Ortiz family was fermented twice and then washed and dried. The process is as follows:
– 48 hours fermentation in cherry
– 48 hours of anaerobic fermentation in the pulp
– then the coffee is washed
– slow drying for approximately 21 days
LOT CO-23-073 Ortiz family Pink bourbon H
Another lot of Bouron Rosado, or Pink Bourbon, was fermented twice by the Ortiz family and then half washed and dried. The process is as follows:
– 40 hours of fermentation in cherry
– 60 hours of anaerobic fermentation in the pulp
– Alcoholic fermentation
– Semi-washing – removing the skin from the cherries, leaving the pulp
– slow drying for approximately 21 days
LOT CO-23-074 Ortiz family Pink bourbon N
The last lot of Bouron Rosado, or Pink Bourbon, which we brought back from the mid-2023 harvest, was fermented twice by the Ortiz family and then dry-processed. The process is as follows:
– 48 hours fermentation in cherry
-100 hours fermentation in tank
– the coffee is left as is, i.e. natural
– drying process, which takes about 40 days
LOT CO-23-074 Ortiz family Pink bourbon N
The last lot of Bouron Rosado, or Pink Bourbon, which we brought back from the mid-2023 harvest, was fermented twice by the Ortiz family and then dry-processed. The process is as follows:
– 48 hours fermentation in cherry
-100 hours fermentation in tank
– the coffee is left as is, i.e. natural
– drying process, which takes about 40 days
LOT CO-23-007 Pink Bourbon - honey
The best Pink Bourbon coffees for us have always been from the Ortiz family, where harvest by harvest they get better at processing it. This lot processed with the honey method proves it. Ripe cherries of the Pink Bourbon variety from La Correa Farm were left to ferment for 48 hours in plastic barrels without access to air. The coffee was then de-skinned, followed by a second fermentation, again without air. The coffee then went on to the dryers with the rest of the fermented pulp. Emphasis was then placed on prolonged drying time so that the sweet notes and exotic fruit notes could be concentrated in the bean.
CO-24-041 Ortiz family Pink bourbon honey
William Ortiz’s elaboration of a pink Bourbon:
1. Harvesting 100% ripe coffee cherries.
2. Anaerobic fermentation for 48 hours in a plastic tank.
3. Washing the coffee cherries and removing the top skin with a wet mill.
4. Coffee is fermented in a tank with a ‘mosto’ spinner, or also the juices from the first fermentation for a further 24 hours.
CO-24-006 Ortiz family Ombligon N
1. Harvesting 100% ripe cherries.
2. Anaerobic fermentation for 60 hours.
3. Oxidation for 24 hours.
4. Coffee is fermented with the juice/yeast from the first fermentation for 100-120 hours.
6. The coffee is lightly washed to remove the juice.
7. Approximately 25 days drying on a kiln.
CO-24-007 Ortiz family Bourbon Ají H
A new cultivar has recently appeared in the Huila region of Colombia. The locals call it ‘Bourbon Ají’ after its spicy flavour. Bourbon Ají William processed it using this process:
1. Harvesting 100% ripe cherries.
2. Anaerobic fermentation for 48 hours.
3. Oxidation for 12 hours.
4. Washing coffee in a wet mill
5. The coffee is fermented with the juice/yeast from the first fermentation for 48 hours.
6. The coffee is lightly washed to remove the juice.
7. It is dried on an oven for approximately 15 days.
