RIGO CUELLAR, Washed Pacamara

This beautifully balanced coffee has a vibrant profile where bright citric acidity meets a structured, sweet base. The Pacamara variety brings its depth and complexity, while the process enhances clarity, juiciness, and a sweetness that lingers.

Cherries are picked by hand to ensure consistency and quality and are then sorted in a tank of water, removing any defective fruits that float. The cherries are then de-pulped and fermented in open tanks, stirring the mass three to four times a day in order to keep the microbial activity homogenous. After around 80 hours the fruit has broken down sufficiently and is gently washed away, leaving a small amount of the sticky mucilage still attached to the parchment.

The coffee is then stored in a traditional drying room where the temperature is controlled with curtains to allow the moisture to reduce slowly and steadily.

Located in the municipality of Salado Blanco at an altitude of 1,800 meters above sea level, Buenavista is planted with exotic varieties such as Pacamara, Gesha, and Pink Bourbon. The farm is surrounded by a shady banana plantation and other native trees such as oaks, cedar, and eucalyptus to protect the coffee from the sun's rays.

Rigoberto Cuellar, or Rigo as he is known, is a young man from a coffee producing family in the municipality of Salado Blanco in Huila. He grew up surrounded by crops, accompanying his father on the farm, helping with planting and anything else required. Thanks to his father, coffee production became his way of life.

At the age of 27, Rigo suffered a devastating loss when his father was cruelly murdered at the door of their house. After his father's death, Rigo fell into a deep depression, allowing the farm to deteriorate through a lack of attention. Realising it was a mistake to continue neglecting the farm that his father had built with so much love and sacrifice, he began rebuilding. The motivation and support of his family brought positive changes and he painted the house and planted new coffee, throwing all of his energy into the farm the way his father had. Aside from coffee Rigo began planting various additional crops such as cassava, arracacha, and bananas taking satisfaction from the knowledge that his father gave him the tools to make the most of the land.

Rigo understands that the markets are changing, and he wants to evolve and keep pace with these develoipments. His interest inlearning and improving his production processes is evident and he has been taking roasting and tasting classes, gaining skills to better understand his coffee and create even more delicious cups. In his own words: "I try to share what I learn in these classes with my children, so that from a young age they learn and appreciate what provides for us."

Pacamara is a hybrid coffee variety created in the late 1950s by the Institute for Coffee Research (ISIC) in El Salvador. It was developed by crossing the Pacas variety—an El Salvadoran mutation of Bourbon—with Maragogype. Pacamara inherits traits from both parents: its relatively short stature and high productivity come from Pacas, while its large cherries and seeds are characteristics shared with Maragogype. This variety shows excellent potential and often dominates Cup of Excellence competitions in El Salvador, thanks to its complexity and high cup quality.

In breeding, at least five generations are needed to stabilize a variety, with seeds selected from plants displaying matching characteristics. However, this process of pedigree selection was never completed for Pacamara. As a result, it remains genetically unstable, with 10–12% of plants grown from seed reverting to Pacas.

The washed process was designed to minimize the risk of off-flavours caused by uncontrolled fermentation during the natural process. Cherries are typically sorted using a flotation tank, where under-ripe or defective fruits float to the top and can be removed. The remaining cherries are then pulped and left in a tank to ferment until the sticky fruit mucilage is soft enough to be washed off the parchment—a paper-like layer surrounding the seed.

The design and cleanliness of the tanks used for fermentation are crucial, and the type, degree and speed of microbial activity depends on various factors. These include the amount of fruit remaining, the presence of bacteria and yeasts, whether the tank is filled with water, and the environmental conditions.

Once the mucilage has sufficiently degraded, it's washed away with water. The remaining parchment coffee, as it's commonly called, is then dried until it reaches a safe moisture content. The bacteria-rich and sugary water used in the process must be treated carefully, as it can cause algae blooms if it enters streams and rivers.

In situations where large amounts of coffee are processed in bulk, such as in Ethiopia, some operations have found it economical to use a mechanical demucilager. This device removes all the fruit from the parchment with minimal water, bypassing the fermentation stage entirely. However, some believe this leads to a reduction in cup quality, as many flavour precursors are created through fermentation.