Catiope
Strawberry Natural
El Mirador

Tastes Like: Strawberry Jam, Shortcake, Tangerine

Origin: Finca El Mirador, Huila, Colombia

Variety: Catiope

Producer: Elkin Guzman

Elevation: 1550-1750 masl

Process:  Natural, co-fermented with strawberries

Farm and Producer

Elkin Guzmán runs El Mirador in El Portal, Huila, at 1,550–1,750 meters. The farm grows Catiope alongside Caturra, Tabi and several other selections. Elkin measures cherry ripeness and separates fruit by density before choosing a processing approach for each lot, drawing on his family’s work in coffee and his own fermentation trials.

Variety

Catiope is a named Arabica selection grown at El Mirador. Elkin encountered it at a Cenicafé experimental station in Timbío, where it was described to him as a cross involving Caturra and Ethiopian lines. The name alone does not establish a genetically uniform cultivar; here it identifies the farm’s planting used for this strawberry-fermented lot.

Processing

This Strawberry Natural preparation begins with sorted ripe cherries fermented for 60 hours. A mother culture fed with molasses and strawberries is then added, and fermentation continues for 270 hours, for 330 hours in total. The cherries subsequently dry whole on raised beds. Strawberries are an ingredient in the fermentation culture, while the Catiope name identifies the coffee variety.