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Born and raised in the wine-growing highlands of his home country Portugal, Luis Marcelino has always had an innate affinity and connection for natural landscapes, a sense of wonder of the bounties of the land and an inexhaustible curiosity about his role in contributing to that picture. This yearning, his love for drinking specialty coffee and his wife’s ties in Colombia led him to explore opportunities for a fresh start towards what he believed would be a more fulfilling life.
There, Aroma Nativo was born. A Processing hub based in Huila and a trading company headquartered in Paris, France, Luis is one of the most exciting new experimental processors in Colombia. In 2022, he implemented the Veci Project having realized the extent to which purposeful processing could contribute to improving coffee quality and enable coffee farmers to enjoy a better quality of life with higher returns for their harvest. He does this by providing a viable alternative for coffee farmers with commendable agronomic practices to receive advance payments which aids cash flow while earning a premium for high quality cherries suitable for expressing exciting profiles.
In 2024, Luis’ Honey Double Fermentation Pink Bourbons, processed using alike Processing Protocol as this lot, were used by Zjevaun in the 2024 World Barista Championship Finals in Busan.
Here, Luis selected only the ripest cherries and put them through a fermentation in controlled anaerobic environment followed by pulping. To enhance the flavour, the beans in mucilage were then fermented in barrels with native bacterias and a special strain of yeast to ensure a distinctive and rich flavour profile.
It was then dried for 15 days in a raised bed sun dryer before being stored in a temperature controlled environment to stabilise for 3 months.