Excelso

Excelso grade coffees from Colombia are 15+ screen size, and can come from any of the country's major growing regions. “EP” stands for “European preparation,” which means that the coffee is screen-size 15 and above, with a maximum of 8 defects within 300 grams.

Colombia is best-known for its Washed coffees. While the processing details might vary slightly from farm to farm or by association, generally the coffee is picked ripe and depulped the same day, then given an open-air fermentation in tanks or buckets for anywhere between 12–36 hours. The coffee is washed clean of its mucilage before being dried either on patios, in parabolic dryers, solar driers, or mechanically. Some Washed coffees in Colombia are mechanically demucilaged.

Although this offering is not traceable to a specific variety, the most commonly grown coffee varieties in Colombia are Castillo, Caturra and the Colombia variety.  This lot is representative of this blend of popular varieties, two of which (Castillo and Colombia) were developed by CENECAFE — the agronomical research arm of Colombia's FNC.