At Inka Roastery we select the best coffees and we work with providers that ensure fair prices for the coffee producers and sustainable agricultural practices. La Pastora by Eugenio Prieto is great example of that.
Origin
La Pastora is a premium coffee cultivated on a family owned farm in Los Monos, Ciudad Bolívar, Antioquia, Colombia . The farm was established in 1940 and since 2020 it was acquired by the brothers Hernan and Eugenio Prieto, who previously acquired experience and success in coffee production in the neighboring farm Villa Clabelina. The coffee variety is called Caturra, a dwarf
variety, and the picking is done by hand as the steep and irregular soil does not allow the use of machinery. Picking by hand ensures that the coffee cherries are picked in the optimal moment, while also preserving the soil. The cherries are then exposed to an extended natural fermentation. Once the cherries have been picked up they are first fermented for 24 hours, after which they are mechanically dried for 7 days at a controlled temperature of 40 degrees. The cupping score obtained by this coffee was 88.
Roasting
This superb Colombian coffee has a complex and layered flavor characterized by notes of sweet and crisp red fruits. Since these coffee beans have gone through extended fermentation, we apply a light and quite-fast roasting: we start to roast the coffee with lots of heat giving it a nice momentum and
then we reduce the heat without stalling the roast. In this way, when the “first crack” starts the coffee has already a nice color indicating that it is well developed and that the sugars have started to caramelize.
Our biodegradable packaging
For Inka roastery preserving our Planet through sustainable actions is important. As part of our sustainable actions, we use biodegradable bags to pack our coffees: they are made of PLA-barrier (agrowaste, starches or wood pulp) and kraft paper. In contrast to plastic bags, which eventually end up in landfills or in nature, biodegradable bags can be composted, therefore they do not have a
negative impact on the environment.
Why did we choose biodegradable bags instead of recyclable plastic bags?
1. Plastic coffee bags are made of virgin plastic, not from recycled plastic, through oil refining. So, using them brings more plastic to the world, even if you recycle them.
2. Plastic can be recycled only few times and only some applications take recycled plastics.
3. Plastic is cheap to produce while the recycling supply chain is expensive and still use fossil fuels. Thus the best option for the environment is to use biodegradable materials which can be disposed of in the biowaste and transformed into compost.
