PRE-ORDER · Red Sunset | Semi-Washed Colombian Coffee Grown by Andrés Cardona

Pre-order — ships early November 2026

Grown and processed by Andrés Cardona. Red Sunset is Andrés's signature process and the most technically interesting coffee we're bringing in this year — off Finca La Ilusión, his own eight-hectare farm in Santa Bárbara, Antioquia, the same land as Primer Paso, our dedicated hectare.

How it's processed

A submerged semi-washed fermentation using cherry juice saved from previous batches as the fermentation medium. Instead of water, the coffee ferments in the concentrated juice of the fruit that came before it — a technique that builds on itself batch after batch and gives the cup its depth. The beans are then depulped with some fruit left on and dried honey-style.

This is the kind of method that made Andrés's name. It's controlled, repeatable, and it tastes like nothing else.

Details

• Producer: Andrés Cardona
• Farm: Finca La Ilusión, Santa Bárbara, Antioquia, Colombia
• Altitude: 1,522 masl
• Varieties: Castillo & Colombia
• Process: Red Sunset — submerged semi-washed, cherry-juice ferment
• Expected profile: Black cherry, lychee, almond, plush syrupy body

Same trees, three answers

This harvest was split about evenly three ways. Luna Azul, Red Sunset, and Purple Honey are the same fruit off the same trees, taken in three completely different directions in the wet mill. Drink all three and you are tasting processing, not terroir. We can't think of a better way to understand what Andrés actually does.

Grown and processed by Andrés

Andrés farms eight hectares at Finca La Ilusión — the land he moved to when he left the family farm to focus on processing. Needing a mechanical dryer for that move is what led to the trade that gave us the Primer Paso hectare.

On August 14, 2026 we committed to every lot from all eight hectares. His largest harvest ever, already picked.

He also buys cherry from neighboring farms and processes it on site, and he is very good at it. These lots are different: grown and processed by Andrés, on his own trees. When we buy coffee he grew rather than coffee he processed for somebody else, the grower's share and the processor's share both stay with him.

What we put back

Year two of our five-year agreement funds an agronomy program run by Sandra Tamayo, an agricultural engineer who walks the field rows and then cups the results herself. Soil sampling analyzed at the National University of Colombia in Medellín, a nutrition plan, phenological monitoring, harvest forecasting. Every report, score sheet, invoice, and soil test is published on our farm page.

How pre-orders work — the honest timeline

The container reaches us in late October 2026. Then it needs roasting, and then it needs resting — coffee is better several days off the roaster than it is on day one, and we are not going to ship you something that hasn't settled.

Realistically, that puts a bag in your hands in early November. You're charged at checkout, and we'll email you the roast date before it ships. If anything slips at origin or in customs, we'll tell you rather than leave you wondering.

More on unusual fermentations in exotic coffee processing methods.