In wine the late harvest is used to produce wines that are sweeter, less acidic and have a more intense flavor. The same thing is done today with coffee, a new tradition that Nespresso has developed together with a few select farmers and agronomists of the Colombian Federation of Farmers. The result is a sweet and lively coffee, with hints of red, fresh and dried fruit, red raisins, apple, candied fruit and biscuits.

What means late collection

Instead of harvesting the ripe Arabica Colombiana cherries, the growers leave them on the plants longer to allow the coffee cherries to develop a unique taste. This coffee is produced in the northern Andean regions of Santander and Tolima, areas known for sweet and delicate coffees due to particularly high altitudes, and is made with Arabica Castillo, one of the rare varieties of Arabica coffee that can ripen remaining attached to the branch, receiving maximum nutrients from the plant and allowing the aromas to develop better. There late collection it is a very unusual practice in the coffee world, difficult and laborious, as well as risky: if the cherries are harvested too late, the coffee takes on a fermented taste and the entire crop is lost. Plant control requires aabsolute attention, practically every 48 hours each plant is inspected in search of the cherries at the right point of ripeness. When the set maturation rate is reached, the cherry becomes darker (red-violet) and develops vinous and red berry aroma: only at that point, the manual berry harvest takes place.

Colombia Master Origin

The difference with a normal crop is only a few days and that is why a few selected coffee farmers, in collaboration with Nespresso and the agronomists of the Colombian Farmers Federation, have developed a protocol that defines exactly the steps to follow for late harvesting. . The result is unprecedented in the coffee industry: the new Colombia Master Origin of Nespresso, a coffee with notes of fresh and dried or candied red fruits (blackcurrant and cranberries), dried red currants and red apples.

The pairing? The chef tells us

The Michelin-starred chef Tommaso Arrigoni of the Innocenti Evasioni restaurant in Milan, tried it for us and combined it with a special recipe: Iberian pork pin, celeriac with rosemary, fennel confit and lemon zest.