28 Jun 2026
Notes from a cupping in Huila
Three days in Pitalito with María Elena Gómez, tile tanks, and a table of Caturra that tasted like apple skin.
The cupping room at Finca Las Palmas is a covered porch. Bowls in a line, the valley underneath, a dog that knows not to cross the table. We cupped eight lots from the same hillside. Two were over-fermented. One was perfect in the way quiet coffee is perfect: red apple, caramel, a cocoa dry-down.
María Elena ferments in tile for eighteen hours because her father did, and because eighteen hours is what this weather wants. She does not chase anaerobic fashion. She chases even drying. The lot we bought is not rare. It is simply honest, year after year.
We flew home with a kilo in carry-on and roasted it the next morning in San Diego. The cup matched the porch. That is the whole job.