Arrived February 7th, 2024 to Calgary Warehouse.

Forward purchased 7kg of La Joya Experimental Natural Yellow Caturra Star Platino Lot 2305.

Samuel Ronzon is a third-generation coffee producer based in Veracruz, Mexico. He operates La Joya Micro-mill, in tandem with his wife Gloria, a PhD candidate in Ecology and Biotechnology Sciences. Their focus is on the production of intentionally fermented specialty coffees, using fermentation as a vehicle to drive flavour in the cup.

In this particular lot of Yellow Bourbon, the fermentation takes place over 300 hours enclosed in food grade plastic fermentation containers with CO2 controlled. This is followed with 20 days total direct drying in African beds, interrupted drying for 8 days up to 20% humidity and 6 days to finish.

From the producer Samuel Ronzon:

Our farm is located in the High Mountains Region in the center of the state of Veracruz, Mexico, in the municipality of Ixhuacán de los Reyes. The average elevation is 1420 meters above sea level, which together with its location north of the continent on the 19th parallel, makes the climate temperate average of 17°C and an average annual rainfall of 1,650 millimeters. The ecosystems that coexist in the region are the Pine-Oak Mountain Forests and mainly the Niebla (cloud forest) or Mesophilic Forest, one of the most biodiverse and threatened on the planet.

Our desire for quality has led us to establish up to 20 varieties of coffee. Which are distributed by well-established and georeferenced lots, to maintain punctual management in the needs of each variety. Following our agroecological principles, our farm is constantly redesigned with a diversified shade with fruit trees (avocado, lemon, orange, macadamia, peach, passion fruit, lychee), timber (oak, pine, sweetgum, cedar) and other native trees, to ensure better microclimatic conditions and ecosystem functioning, thus contributing to the environmental conservation of the region, safety and food sovereignty always with respect for the community in general.

At Microbeneficio La Joya we design coffees that awaken feelings and memories that extend beyond a specific flavor, which implies that it is not just about having a cup of coffee but having an experience. We believe that experimentation has many benefits, you can learn, grow, and feel alive. With these new methods, we have learned to enhance the attributes of our terroir, optimize resources, and modify some aspects of the coffee process. We need to reinvent ourselves, get closer as a community and work with hope, solidarity, and harmony.

We work two high-end coffee lines. The Experimental line, made up of Nano lots processed with new specific protocols to obtain unique coffees, and the Gema line which is made up of nano and micro lots that reaffirm the quality and consistency of the best experimental protocols from previous harvests. When a protocol is standardized and replicated, providing consistency in our coffees harvest after harvest, it becomes part of the Gem Line.

DIAMANTE
Just as diamond is formed by subjecting pure carbon atoms to extreme pressure and temperature conditions, once the best coffee fruits have been selected, they are deposited in hermetically sealed tanks with the intention of exposing them to a constant pressure ranging from 15 to 25 psi by injecting CO2. The optimum temperatures for this process oscillate between 19-25°C. By having these specific pressure and temperature conditions we potentiate the interaction of more specific groups of microorganisms tolerant to these conditions.

STAR PLATINO
Like platinum, which is a precious metal known for its rarity and beauty our protocol requires a complex process that begins with the adequate selection of the coffee fruits, which are then deposited in hermetically sealed tanks with valves that allow the CO2 resulting from the fermentation process to escape. They are processed for periods of up to 360 hours, depending on the variety.

Variety: Yellow Caturra
Price Forward paid per kilogram:  37.00 USD FOB
Process: Experimental Natural Star Platino
Total kilos available: 7kg
Harvest date: May 23, 2023
Fermentation: 300 hours enclosed in food grade plastic fermentation containers with CO2 controlled
Drying time: 20 days total direct drying in African beds, interrupted drying for 8 days up to 20% humidity and 6 days to finish 
Humidity: 10.5%
Density: 704 gm/L
Water Activity: 0.65
Stabilization: 100 days