We struggled coming up with tasting notes for this delicious honey-processed Colombian coffee. We just kept saying "dang this is like a sweet-tart, what flavor are sweet-tarts?!" Hints of blackberry, clementine, and thyme all wrapped up in a super silky mouthfeel. There is some tartness there but driven along by an underlying cane-sugar sweetness that makes it one of the liveliest coffees we have had the pleasure of roasting recently. We are pretty jazzed to share with you this coffee from Manos Juntas Micromill in Cauca, Colombia. The coffee was sourced by our pals over at Cafe Imports and comes from the Manos Juntas Micromill in Sotará, Colombia, which is owned and operated by Colombian specialty coffee exporter, Banexport. The entire concept of this micromill is based on simplifying tasks and responsibilities. A couple things make the micromill special: 1. Producers are paid by total weight. The riper the coffee cherry, the heavier it is. This encourages better harvest practice that directly correlates to higher quality. 2. Producers get paid upfront for their coffee, typically producers have to wait 35 to 40 days for coffee to dry before selling it. 3. Banexport guarantees to pay producers a fixed price well above the market value for these cherries. 4. Producers involved are from surrounding farms. This means they need only to travel a short distance to deliver coffee, as opposed to driving many kilometers into town. 5. Coffee infrastructure, like drying beds, fermentation tanks, and depulpers, can be very expensive to purchase and maintain. With this model, farmers can forgo all of this hassle and focus on maintaining healthy trees. Banexport's theory is that quality is dictated 50% by crop production (fertilization, pruning, and proper harvest of cherries) and 50% by post-harvest processing. This model allows farmers to focus their efforts on best-growing and harvesting practices while the meticulous work of sorting, processing, drying, and storing is managed by Banexport's team.