Jairo Arcila is a third-generation coffee grower from Quindio, Colombia. He bought his first farm, Finca La Esmeralda, in 1987, while working full time as Mill Manager for Colombia’s second-largest exporter \u2014 a position he held for over 40 years until his retirement in 2019. Using his savings, he gradually acquired five more farms: Villarazo, Mazatlan, Santa Monica, Maracay, and Buenos Aires. During harvest, Jairo provides employment for local workers, creating meaningful economic impact in his community. His sons Carlos and Felipe \u2014 co-founders of Cofinet \u2014 guided him toward specialty coffee production and the cultivation of exotic varieties. Today, alongside Castillo, Finca Santa Monica hosts Pink Bourbon, Java, Papayo, and Gesha.<\/p>\n
The processing of this lot is among the most intricate Cofinet applies. Ripe cherries are transported to the La Pradera processing center in GrainPro bags to preserve freshness, then floated in water tanks to remove low-density beans. The water is recycled through a vetiver grass filtration system \u2014 no contaminated water is discharged. The cherries undergo 72 hours of dry anaerobic fermentation with pulp on, with ripe strawberries and wine yeast added to the tanks. The strawberries transfer their sweet, fruity flavours to the coffee; the wine yeast enhances fermentation, producing aromatic compounds that add complexity and depth. After fermentation, the cherries are pulped \u2014 the outer skin removed, the mucilage retained \u2014 and dried on a concrete patio for 11 days to a moisture content of 9.5\u201311%.<\/p>\n
At Handpickers, we selected Jairo Arcila Santa Monica because it represents a generation of producers who did not stop at inherited knowledge \u2014 they enriched it. Jairo built six farms over decades of consistent work, and now, guided by his sons, produces coffee that competes with the finest specialty lots in the world. This lot belongs to our Reserve series: for those who want to understand how far a Castillo can go when the processing respects it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jairo Arcila Santa Monica is a honey-processed Colombian coffee from Finca Santa Monica in Armenia, Quindio, produced by Jairo Arcila \u2014 a third-generation farmer and father of Cofinet’s founders. Castillo variety at 1,450\u20131,500 masl on volcanic ash soil. The Honey Wine Yeast + Strawberry process involves 72 hours of anaerobic fermentation with pulp on, ripe strawberries, and wine yeast added to the fermentation tanks \u2014 followed by 11 days of drying on a concrete patio. A cup with intense fruit character, lasting sweetness, and aromatic complexity that stays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[675],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-20231","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-reserved-2","first","outofstock","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-variable"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n