006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo
006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo

006 - Jhon Didier Trujillo

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This washed Chiroso lot is the entirety of Jhon Didier Trujillo's first harvest—as well as his first export—and presents with a dense, sugared cup with bright tamarind-like acidity.

From Christopher: "When my friends at Unblended told me that they were working with a new producer in their network—one who had never exported to the U.S. before—I asked to taste the coffee and to learn more. Even in years when prices in the local market are strong, coffee as an export product offers the potential for stronger prices and greater resiliency to market volatility. I knew that the work Unblended was doing in opening specialty export channels could be transformative for a smallholder; the other side of that equation is that it requires a buyer. I cupped Jhon Didier's coffee blind on a table with 11 other offers from three exporters and fell in love with its sweetness, structured acidity and intensity of flavor. I was surprised to learn that this was not just his first export—but also his first year of production.

"In the best case, it takes a coffee tree three years to produce; typically, though, it can take anywhere from 4-5 years for a tree to reach full production. This means that for someone looking to begin growing coffee, it's an investment—one with an uncertain outcome. When he decided to begin growing coffee, he planted what he called Caturra Chiroso using seeds he got from Carmen Montoya, whose father got seedlings from Fabian Castrillon, who brought the trees to Urrao from Sonson. Genetic testing performed using a separation of two different varieties called "Chiroso" in a collaboration between Unblended and Sey revealed the coffee's true genetic origins as a likely Ethiopian landrace—origins that explain the coffee's high quality potential. Seeking a high price for his coffee, knowing that quality was important, and hearing that Chiroso from Urrao has become well-known among specialty buyers, Jhon planted exclusively Chiroso on his farm—5,000 trees under the shade of lulo and banana trees.

"In his first harvest, those trees produced just 116kg of exportable green coffee, all of which I purchased for Aviary. The first 24kg of the lot was released through xbloom and was previewed at SCA Expo in Chicago in April.

This coffee is vibrant, tropical, dense and sweet with notes of brown sugar, tamarind, apricot and grapefruit with a slight florality like marigold."

Read the blog to put this coffee into context.

This coffee was roasted for wholesale and xbloom June 10 and for later for the official drop on June 26, 2024.

TASTING NOTES: Brown sugar, tamarind, apricot, marigold and grapefruit
ROAST: Light, to highlight the sweetness of the coffee as well as the tanginess of its acidity.
ACIDITY: Tangy, structured and bright acidity
FUNK: None 0/10—this is a sweetness-forward coffee
FOR FANS OF: High-sweetness, structured coffees that are very clean and have a viscous mouthfeel; smallholders; exotic varieties; first-time exporters

FARMGATE PRICE: 30.000 COP/kg as parchment
FOB PRICE: $5.89/lb
LANDED PRICE: $8.80/lb

This lot was purchased by Unblended on behalf of Aviary directly from Jhon Didier, who was paid a farmgate price of $30.000 COP/kg. Including the milling performance and exchange rate at time of conversion, this translates to approximately $3.48 per pound as exportable green coffee. In comparison, on February 8—the day that Jhon sold his coffee—the price offered by the FNC was approximately $11.840 COP/kg.

The export margin—$2.41—is high, even for specialty Colombian standards—and is attributable to Unblended's unconventional model, high operating costs relative to its size, and focus on smaller volumes (like Aviary). Because Unblended does not own its own mill, it must rent milling time; this is very expensive in Colombia, and options are limited. All of their coffee must first be transported to Armenia for milling and then to export in Cartagena. These coffees are all vacuum-sealed, requiring additional labor and materials expense, and trade financing for smaller volumes of "high risk" (high quality, expensive) coffees is extremely expensive.

Similarly, the import margin is quite high; this is because Unblended does not operate at sufficient scale to manage its own imports, instead relying on third parties to consolidate, ship, finance and provide customs brokerage for their coffees, which they then market to roasters in the U.S. Shipping containers of lower bulk density is more expensive, as is shipping to the West Coast, where this coffee landed.

Chiroso grown using organic methods at 1900 masl at Villa Flor in Urrao, Antioquia; every day Monday through Friday, coffee is selectively hand-picked and sorted for ripeness, floated, pulped immediately, and placed under cool, clean water to ferment; each day's pickings is added with coffee from the previous days and mixed; on Friday the lot is washed; the lot dries in marsequinas covered with plastic for 14-15 days.

This coffee is quite light; I recommend resting it for anywhere from 2-4 weeks from its roast date for filter brewing and 5-6 weeks for espresso-style preparation (though you may wish to try it earlier to enjoy how the coffee changes and opens over time). In earlier stages, a grapefruit acidity will be present, which modulates into tamarind and stonefruit with more rest.

As filter, I prefer a ratio of 1:17 using low-agitation methods of extraction resulting in 22-23% EY.

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