COLOMBIA- Excelso EP Huila

The Flavour Profile

There are coffees that are pleasant, and then there are coffees that make you stop mid-sip and think — wow. Colombia Excelso EP Huila is one of those coffees. Grown high in the mountains of Pitalito, Huila, by nearly 5,000 smallholder farming families, this fully washed medium roast specialty coffee is bright, complex, and beautifully alive in the cup.

Expect lively red berries, a gentle winey character, sweet caramel, and a clean chocolate finish — all held together by the precision and clarity that only a carefully executed washed process can deliver. Each flavour note comes through with confidence. Nothing muddy, nothing muddled. Just a genuinely expressive, single origin coffee at its very best.

The body is smooth and balanced — round and pleasing, with a silky texture that makes it effortlessly drinkable from the first cup of the morning to the last of the afternoon.

Drinking it black? This is where the complexity really sings. The berries are vivid, the winey brightness is elegant, and the caramel and chocolate finish lingers cleanly. Best enjoyed as a pour over, V60, or Aeropress to let every note express itself fully. A genuinely special filter coffee that rewards you every single time.

Drinking it with milk? The brightness softens beautifully, and the caramel and chocolate notes take centre stage — with just a whisper of berry sweetness in the background. A smooth, sweet, and deeply satisfying flat white or cappuccino that feels both approachable and a little bit special.

Colombia Excelso EP Huila works beautifully across all brewing methods — pour over, V60, Aeropress, filter coffee, espresso, cafetière, and stovetop — and is wonderful at any time of day. Freshly roasted to order by Nick in our small Canterbury roastery. We’re happy to grind it for your preferred brewing method — just ask. Visit our Buy More Save More page for bulk discounts, or explore our subscriptions for the best ongoing price per kilo.

The Little Details

Colombia Excelso EP Huila is sourced from the Pitalito growing area in the Huila department, in the south of Colombia — one of the country’s most respected and prolific specialty coffee regions. Grown at altitudes between 1,340 and 1,800 metres above sea level, the coffee benefits from the region’s perfect combination of high altitude, consistent temperatures, and rich mountain soils. It is produced by a co-operative of 4,845 smallholder farmers, each tending an average of just 2.2 hectares of land — small, family-run farms where attention to detail is personal and the pride in the crop is real. Variety is Caturra, fully washed and sundried. Grade Excelso.

 

About the Process

In Pitalito, harvesting is done entirely by hand — cherry by cherry, selecting only the ripest red fruit from each tree. Because the farms here are small and family-run, this level of care is not only possible, it is a way of life. And that care makes an enormous difference to what ends up in your cup.

The same day as picking, the cherries are floated in water to remove any underripe or damaged fruit — only the very best go forward. They are then run through a mechanical depulper, which gently removes the outer skin and fruit flesh, leaving the beans coated in their sticky, sugar-rich mucilage layer.

From there, the beans are placed in open fermentation tanks, where the region’s natural yeasts and bacteria go to work for between 14 and 18 hours. This is the step that defines a great washed Colombian — a careful, controlled fermentation that breaks down the remaining mucilage and slowly develops the coffee’s remarkable clarity, brightness, and complexity. It takes experience to know exactly when it’s ready. The farming families of Pitalito have been doing this for generations.

Once fermentation is complete, the beans are thoroughly washed with clean water to remove every last trace of mucilage, then laid out to dry in the sun on raised beds or patios for between 7 and 15 days. They are turned regularly to ensure even drying, and carefully inspected throughout to remove any imperfect beans. The result is a beautifully clean, expressive cup — every flavour note precisely where it should be.

These aren’t anonymous beans from a warehouse. They come from nearly 5,000 families in the mountains of Huila who take enormous pride in what they grow. And now Nick roasts them fresh for you in Canterbury. That’s a journey worth tasting.