Colombia Audon Solano, Washed Caturra & V. Colombia

About the Coffee

Audon Solano farms Finca El Triunfo in Palermo, Huila, a region in southwestern Colombia that grows more coffee than any other department in the country. The farm sits at 1,800 meters and covers 26 hectares in total, with about 3 of those hectares planted in coffee. That works out to roughly 14,000 trees split between two varieties: 4,000 Caturra and 10,000 V. Colombia. The rest of the farm grows banana and tangelo trees alongside the coffee.

Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon that originated in Brazil in the early 20th century. Its small size made it attractive for higher-density planting, and it spread through Central America by the 1970s. V. Colombia came later, developed by the Colombian coffee research institute Cenicafé to cross Caturra with Timor Hybrid and add rust resistance. Both varieties grow side by side at Finca El Triunfo, and this lot is made from a mix of the two. Audon uses a two-stage fermentation process: the coffee first ferments in cherry for 24 hours, then gets de-pulped and dry fermented in a tank for another 36 hours. After washing, it dries in a greenhouse-style structure for 12 to 18 days.

This is Subtext's fifth season buying from Audon, with the coffee imported through The Coffee Quest, who have worked with the farm for 10 years. The total lot size was 350 kg, and Subtext purchased 140 kg of it. Subtext paid $8.75 USD per pound, compared to an FOB price of $6.76 USD per pound. The lot scored 87 on Subtext's internal cupping scale.

About Subtext

Subtext is a roastery based in Toronto, operating out of an industrial space at 130 Cawthra Ave in the city's west end. Their sourcing philosophy is built around tracing coffee back to specific producers rather than broad regional labels, which is why each bag carries a producer's name rather than a country or cooperative. They publish full pricing transparency on every product, including what they paid versus the FOB price, to make the supply chain legible rather than opaque.

On the roasting side, Subtext tracks moisture and density in green coffee, monitors temperature throughout each roast, and uses colour measurement tools to assess development and consistency. They also test brewed coffee for solubility using a refractometer, documenting TDS and extraction percentages to confirm how each profile will perform across different brewing methods. Their approach is to bring out as much origin character as possible without adding roast flavour on top of it.