Jhoan Vergara ~ Tabi | Huila, Colombia
US$25.50
In stock
Producer: Jhoan Vergara
Farm: Las Flores
Place: San Isidro, Huila, Colombia
Variety: Tabi
Processing: Multi-Stage Innovation Washed
Importer: Shared Source
Harvest: January 2025
Cup profile: sweet and jammy, berry-centric, with long gingerbread-like spice qualities
Tabi from Jhoan Vergara’s family farm, Las Flores, in San Isidro, Huila. Multi-stage innovative washed processing. Jhoan uses both whole cherry and depulped fermentations to amplify jammy fruit characteristics. The cup profile is cotton candy sweet with blue-raspberry-like fruit character, with long gingerbread-like spice qualities in the finish.
Jhoan
Jhoan’s parents migrated from Cundinamarca to Huila in the early 90s- they came after an uncle had found success in Huila. Though Huila was a new part of the country for the family, coffee farming was not- Jhoan’s grandparents were coffee producers in the north. The family started with about 15 hectares in total, but they started with just 2 ha in coffee- and grew from there to plant up to 90,000 trees- almost entirely caturra. For the first 15 years or so, the family focused on local markets, and commodity coffees- the specialty coffee industry was still very nascent. In the early 00s, Jhoan’s mother sent a coffee into the Cup of Excellence competition, and though she didn’t win, the family began to focus more on quality, and Jhoan began to learn more about coffee.
At just 15 years old, Jhoan left high school in Pitalito and began to focus on the farm, and on coffee. He began to get curious about coffee- specifically, where it ended up, and who was buying it- and he ended up at the SENA- the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje, or National Training Service- where many coffee producers learn agronomy, cupping, roasting, and basic brewing skills. At the SENA, Jhoan met Nestor Lasso- which will end up being a crucial friendship and partnership.
Processing
For this Tabi lot, the fruit is first submerged (in cold water) for 12 hours, and then the cherries are left to continue fermenting in an open air environment (oxidation) for another 24 hours. From there, the fruits are de-pulped, and then they undergo an additional 48 hours of anaerobic fermentation in a sealed vessel with a tube for off-gassing. Then, the coffee is washed and taken down to a dehumidifying machine that family friends Adrian and Nestor manage down in Bruselas, in Huila.
All of the washed coffees that Jhoan processed this year undergo a thermal shock – meaning that the coffee is washed with water heated to 50C and then rapidly cooled using cold water for 30 minutes before drying in the dehumidifying machine for 36 hours.
Tabi variety
A hybrid between Bourbon, Typica & Timor. Developed by Cenicafe in Colombia for disease resistance while maintaining high quality.
