Here is one of those rare opportunities where all that is good about coffee intersect. Simply a trifecta of: organic farm management practices; traceable to producers in the Marcala region, a protected designation of origin (DENOMINACION DE ORIGEN CAFE DE MARCALA); and a meticulous post-harvest standard of hand sorting cherry, cherry floating to remove less dense and damaged beans, proper fermentation, and long drying times. It starts with a concept called Finca Humana (the Human Farm) at Café Organico Marcala, S.A. (COMSA), where the wellbeing of humans is the core objective and educating more than 1,500 producer-members to successfully live in harmony with nature is everywhere. At La Fortaleza, the COMSA biodynamic demonstration farm, the focus of transferring knowledge takes place through week-long seminars called Pata de Chucho (pawprints left by a stray dog), which aptly reveals COMSA’s dogged exploration for human productivity in harmony with nature. The trailblazing ideas for using organic matter to productively cultivate high quality coffee is only a sliver of what COMSA teaches about the power of nature through the Finca Humana philosophy. COMSA dedicates funding from the proceeds of coffee sales to run a cutting edge International school dedicated to filling children’s minds with possibility, and training them to be the future leaders of Finca Humana. This particular lot is a washed process carried out at COMSA’s centralized wet-mill dedicated to process organic lots. After farmers meticulously harvest ripe cherries and deliver them to COMSA, the post harvest process begins by floating cherries to eliminate under ripe and damaged coffee. The water is recycled several times to ensure conservation of water. Next the cherries are depulped and the mucilage covered beans are fermented in tanks for 24 hours. Then the coffee is washed mechanically with a demucilager designed to significantly reduce wastewater. The washed coffee in parchment is dried on patios to 11 percent moisture and then stored until preparation for export. COMSA also has its own dry-mill where coffee is hulled and sorted by density and color in preparation for export. COMSA has a fully equipped cupping lab and several Q graders who check the quality prior to shipping.
