Colombia, La Ilusion, Roseval Ortiz, Natural Process

This coffee probably has the to power to transport you to a crowded family farm stand somewhere just outside of town. When you open the bag of fresh beans, you'll know what I mean. You see a dozen jars of jam lined up near the cash register containing unknown berry varieties and have to try them all. One tastes like a blackberry, but not the ones from the supermarket...maybe it's one of those wild berries plucked from just off the path.

Oh, I almost forgot about the dark chocolate flavors. If you find yourself with a stash of dark chocolate bars hidden in a strategic kitchen cupboard location, this coffee might just find a special place in your coffee heart.

In 2018, we sent in this coffee for a free review as part of a natural process espresso report by Coffee Review. It was awarded 92 Points, making it tied with the 4th place coffee that was included in the report. We've found La Ilusion to be delicious each season since then and Roseval continues to wow the world including a 26th Place Award in the 2019 Colombia North Cup of Excellence competition.

The Story

This wonderful natural process coffee is grown on a roughly 6 acre plot on a small family farm called Finca La Ilusion. While very common in other producing countries like Ethiopia, the "natural" coffee processing method, whereby coffee seed is allowed to dry in the fruit, was pretty much prohibited from being exported from Colombia until around 2016. Roseval Ortiz Escarpeta took a risk on this method with such a high quality coffee potential and it paid off tremendously well.