Your January 2022 Magic Seeds

Jairo Quińones - January 2022 Magic Seeds

We are super excited to introduce you to this month's Magic Seeds, a washed processed, Colombia variety from Finca Nueva Zelandia in Pitalito, Colombia. We have plenty to say about that, but first let's take a look at our Daily Drinker.

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Your January Daily Drinker comes from a variety of farmers throughout the Huila region of Colombia. The farms selected for this offering show the classic flavors of this region.

In our experience, coffees from Huila are very fruity, often carrying a tropical fruit note that you can't quite perfectly describe. That weirdness has made them some of our favorite coffees year after year. This area is strange, in a good way; almost every year we see stories coming out of here that are simply unexplainable: New varieties spontaneously mutate on a few isolated farms or classic varieties, historically deemed inferior, suddenly outscore their more valued peers.

Along side all this weirdness, and partially because of it, Huila has become our favorite region to travel to as well. The coffees and culture here are just so exciting.

Your Daily Drinker for this month, from Huila, Colombia reminds us of a strawberry banana smoothie and the classic Orange Julius. It has just a bit of a papaya-like funk to keep it fun too. As it cools, we're seeing notes of fresh peach and bright, ripe grapefruit. Throughout the cup we see all that fruitiness held up by a lingering dark chocolate and toffee finish.

Jairo Quiñones and his family

This month's Magic Seeds come from Finca Nueva Zelandia, owned and operated by Jairo Quińones. His farm is located high in the mountains outside of Pitalito, part of Colombia's Huila region. On our last trip to Colombia, a few years back, we were able to visit Jairo's farm after his coffee stood out among the many we tasted that day. His farm is truly on of the most picturesque we have been to, matching the beauty of the coffee grown there. Granted, getting there meant climbing up the mountain, in and out of rainclouds, in the back of a cloth-topped pickup truck.

Jairo grew up surrounded by coffee, with his parents both being coffee farmers. 15 years ago his father, Don Jairo, gave him his own piece of land to begin farming. Through saving his profits, Jairo has been able to expand his farm and now owns two parcels of land - both about 5 hectares. He has continued to work on improving his skills, both in caring for his plants and processing the fruit after harvest.

Jairo's coffee, your Magic Seeds for this month, tastes like fresh, wild strawberries throughout the experience. We're also seeing notes of clover honey and peach, along with a creamy nuttiness that reminds us of cashew butter. Some of the favorite flavors we picked up on were vibrant, ripe cherries and lime zest, just like one of our favorite summertime drinks, a cherry limeade.

We hope that you have loved this month's Magic Seeds and look forward to sharing another exceptional experience with you next month.

image provided by Café Imports

Past Magic Seeds