Finca La Luisa: Antioquia's Most Creative Co-Fermentation Estate

Finca La Luisa is a 70-hectare estate located near the village of San Bernardo de los Farallones in Ciudad Bolívar, Antioquia — a municipality in southwestern Antioquia known for its rugged mountain landscapes, diverse microclimates, and increasingly prominent specialty coffee sector. The farm sits at 1,720 to 1,850 metres above sea level, where the altitude, consistent moisture, and Antioquia's characteristic volcanic and clay-rich soils create growing conditions that allow Caturra to develop exceptional sugar concentration and aromatic potential.

Owner Juan Pablo Vélez began the farm's experimental journey approximately four years ago, when he first started working with carbonic maceration in stainless steel tanks with CO₂ injection. Carbonic maceration — a technique borrowed from the wine world, where whole grapes are fermented in CO₂-rich environments to produce particularly fruity, low-tannin wines — produces coffee with unusually vivid fruit notes and a distinctive carbonation-adjacent freshness. Building on that foundation, Vélez developed a method of fermenting coffee with fresh fruit juice approximately two years later, producing the family of vibrantly named lots — Poppy Soda, Strawberry Cream, Lychee Candy — that have attracted global specialty buyers.

The Carbonic Maceration Process at La Luisa

All three lots from this estate share the same foundational protocol, with variation in the fruit used for the infusion stage.

1. Ripe Caturra cherries are hand-selected and introduced to sealed stainless steel tanks.
2. CO₂ is flushed into the tanks to create an anoxic (oxygen-free) environment — this is carbonic maceration. The cherries ferment in this environment for 5 days (120 hours) at controlled temperature.
3. Cherries are removed from the tank and depulped. The leached liquor (fermentation juice) from the initial fermentation is preserved.
4. A second fermentation begins: depulped coffee is returned to tanks with the preserved leachate PLUS the fresh fruit juice relevant to each lot (poppy/effervescent botanicals, strawberry, or lychee concentrate).
5. This second fermentation focuses on precursor transfer — the fruit's compounds and microbiome infuse into the coffee during an additional 48-hour controlled phase.
6. Coffee is dried on raised African beds at temperatures below 35°C until ideal humidity (12%) is reached.

Antioquia: A Rising Specialty Origin

While Huila and Nariño have long dominated Colombia's specialty coffee conversation, Antioquia — Colombia's most populous department and the region surrounding Medellín — has been quietly developing a world-class specialty sector. The Southwestern Antioquia subregion, encompassing Ciudad Bolívar and surrounding municipalities, operates at altitudes between 1,600 and 2,000 metres with fertile soils and a bimodal rainfall pattern that produces two distinct harvests per year. The Coffee Quest uses Ciudad Bolívar as one of its primary sourcing areas; Covoya Coffee exports multiple La Luisa lots to international buyers; and producers like Juan Pablo Vélez are building international reputations that rival Huila's most celebrated farms.

Finca La Luisa's Full Lot Portfolio

BrewFusion carries three lots from Finca La Luisa — Poppy Soda, Strawberry Cream, and Lychee Candy. These are distinct products from the same farm's co-fermentation programme, each using a different infusion agent while sharing the double carbonic maceration base process.

Who Carries Finca La Luisa?

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