Nariño harvest is upon us. After weeks on the ground cupping coffee, talking to producers, and making commitments, we’re excited for the highly curated selection of coffees we’re shipping from the Tablon de Gomez subregion of Nariño.
We’re bringing in slim volumes, but the coffees are quintessential Nariño, with notes of red fruit like cherry, red plum, and red apple, subtle florals, complex sweet acidity like lime, rich blackcurrant, sweetness like figs, maple syrup, and cocoa, a creamy body, and a beautiful, notable consistency. They’re cleaner this year than ever (more on why below).
We are also excited to offer a Tablon Decaf option, which uses ethyl acetate decaffeination to produce a uniquely well-suited flavor profile for this region: the process yields a bright, fruited cup with nuance and distinction.
Rain & Market Conditions
After a few years where unstable weather created suboptimal conditions for cherry development, this year’s early rains and cloud cover helped the coffees develop beautifully and dry slowly but completely. While climate change has taken a toll here, this year’s high rainfall also helped with productivity.
Market prices are high, and producers across Colombia have become very attuned to how the stock market and international news drive daily local prices. They’re more strategic about when to sell their coffee, but high prices mean they’re releasing them right away. That’s good for quality, but a challenge for acquisition. Especially when opportunistic cash-in-hand buyers will buy inadequately dried coffees, it’s a more competitive market for us to make sure we get exactly what we want. Our strategy has been to purchase a highly selective curation of coffees out of Colombia.
While there are coffees in Inzà we would like to get in and taste, we’ve limited the year’s selections to Tablon de Gomez in Nariño due to ongoing gang violence and instability in Inzà.
What Makes Tablon Special
Nariño is home to very special conditions that create exceptional coffees. With privileged altitudes between 1700-2000 masl, very distinct and gentle cold and dry seasons, and a variety of microclimates, it’s an ideal geography for growing top-tier Colombian lots. With the coffee-growing areas nestled in windy canyons, quick and even drying of the coffee allows these coffees to reach their full potential.
Because our producer partners work in such small plots, it’s hours and hours cupping each one and making careful decisions about when to separate a single producer and when to build community lots. Community lots are bespoke, carefully constructed to reflect hyperlocal flavor profiles.
From there, we prioritize logistics, making sure the product that arrives in the states is equal to the one that left origin, and in fact has a chance to continue opening up after arrival.
We’ve been working in this area with these specific communities since 2015, when the remoteness of the region meant a lack of strong market access. Now, producers here have options for where they sell their coffee, and we continue to pay premium rates so that the relationships feel mutually rewarding.
All that shines through in the final cup, with the above notes highlighting a brilliant balance of sweetness, acidity, and consistency with a perfect profile for fall and winter menu planning.
Selective & Thoughtful
Conditions in Colombia have grown more challenging over the years, with intense competition due to myriad factors including the C market’s influence on local markets and changes in weather patterns leading to more limited coffees that meet our standards. Because of that, we remain extremely thoughtful about what we want to bring in from Colombia. What we do bring in is exceptional.
Interested in sourcing coffee with us? Reach out at info@redfoxcoffeemerchants.com. To learn more about our work, check out our journal and follow us on Instagram @redfoxcoffeemerchants.