Colombia Alirio Ortega, Washed Caturron

About the Coffee

Alirio Ortega, along with his wife Anayibe and their children, farms three plots in Bruselas, Huila: El Roble, El Diviso, and El Meson. The farm on this lot, El Roble, sits at 1,650 meters. Alirio grows an unusually wide range of varieties across his farms, including Pink Bourbon, Red Bourbon, Sidra, Caturron, Chiroso, Aji, and Pacamara. This season is the largest Subtext has taken from him, with seven single-variety microlots, five of which are exclusive to the roaster. Subtext has now bought Alirio's coffee for five consecutive years.

Alirio starts the washed process with a 28-hour in-cherry fermentation before removing the fruit skin. The coffee then goes through a second fermentation of 36 to 72 hours in sealed plastic containers, followed by a full wash and 20 days of drying. Caturron, the variety in this lot, is a hybrid of a Timor hybrid and either Caturra or Bourbon, confirmed through recent genetic testing by Tim Wendelboe. It is resistant to coffee leaf rust and produces a distinctive cup. Across his farms, Alirio fertilizes with homemade organic compost and also grows plantain, beans, and corn for the local market, keeping the operation diverse and as self-sustaining as possible.

This lot came to Subtext through importer Osito, which has worked directly with Alirio for three years. Subtext paid $10.45 USD per pound and purchased the full 140 kg lot. The coffee scored 88 on Subtext's internal cupping scale. Huila, located in the southwest of Colombia, is the country's largest coffee-producing department, spanning 35 of its 37 municipalities, with a wide range of elevations and microclimates that shape the diversity of what comes out of it.

About Subtext

Subtext is a roastery based in Toronto, roasting out of an industrial space at 130 Cawthra Ave in the city's west end. Their sourcing approach is built around named producers, not broad regional labels. Each bag carries the producer's name because, as they put it, that is whose work made the coffee before it reached their hands. They work with a small group of importers, including Osito, who they trust to share similar values around transparency and fair pricing.

On the roasting side, Subtext tracks moisture and density of green coffee before it's roasted, takes thermocouple readings throughout each roast, runs hundreds of color measurements to check development and consistency, and uses refractometers to test solubility after brewing. They aim for roasts that bring out the character of the coffee at origin, and they avoid the dark roast profiles that can mask what's actually in the cup. They also taste their profiles blind against what they consider strong reference points from similar regions and production styles.