THE STORY OF THE PRODUCT
ORIGIN OF THE PRODUCT Papayo Jungle, Colombia
The Bayter family began in 1995 growing avocados in Fresno, Tolima. After a market downturn, they turned to coffee in 2010 at El Vergel Estate, starting with Caturra. By 2015 they had developed their first varietals, and in 2017 Elías and Shady began searching for ways to bridge producers and roasters through innovative processing. In 2019, Forest Coffee was born — today a network of 250 coffee-growing families with four projects across Colombia. Papayo is one of the rarest varieties cultivated at El Vergel, with 3,000 trees planted in 2022 — a cultivar with an intense tropical character that responds exceptionally to natural processing.
The processing of Papayo Jungle is among the most intricate we have encountered in Colombian coffee. It begins with 4 hours of aerobic pre-fermentation on tarps — a stage that amplifies the variety's natural tropical notes. The cherries then move to hermetic tanks under shade for 96 hours, with humidity maintained at 22–25%, allowing a slow, layered fermentation that builds complexity impossible to achieve with conventional methods. Mechanical drying follows for 76 hours to reach precise moisture content, and a 30-day stabilisation in GrainPro bags completes the process before milling.
At Handpickers, we selected Papayo Jungle because it represents the highest expression of our relationship with Forest Coffee — a family that invests in rare varieties and complex processing without compromise. This coffee is not for everyone. It is for those who want to understand how far a cup can go when every step has been designed with precision.