Colombia Paula 20 Brix, Finca Santa Elena
Finca Santa Elena
High in Colombia, Samuel and Paula are on a mission of rediscovery! They named their farm after the patron saint of lost and forgotten things, Saint Elena Santilopa, and that spirit runs through everything they do — reviving heritage varieties like Caturra and Bourbon while cultivating rarities such as SL28, Chiroso, Laurina, and Geisha. The result is their flagship, Paula 20 Brix Natural Pacamara, and a cup profile unlike much else coming out of the region.
What sets Santa Elena apart is how precisely that profile is engineered. The farm uses Brix measurements — a reading of sugar content in the cherry — to pinpoint the exact moment of peak ripeness. Once that ideal cherry is identified, its precise color becomes a visual key for the picking team, who then hand-select only cherries matching that exact hue. It's a level of control that translates directly into sweeter, cleaner, more structured cups. From there, the coffee moves into solar-powered drying infrastructure, trading fossil fuels for stable, sustainable, sun-driven processing.
That same care extends underground and behind the scenes. Rather than leaning on chemical inputs, Santa Elena manages pests with water traps and organic foliar sprays developed through its own on-site biorefinery. Even waste gets a second life: coffee pulp and animal manure feed into a bioreactor that converts them into biogas, closing the loop between what the farm produces and what it consumes. The result is a farm that operates close to fully organic, without ever claiming the certification.
This same intentionality shows up in how the farm treats its people. Workers earn competitive wages, live in quality housing on-site, and eat well — a standard well above what's typical during harvest season — while the farm actively works to open leadership roles to women in an industry that hasn't always made room for them.
Most of the harvest goes toward Paula 20 Brix, but Santa Elena's experimental streak shows up in its micro and nano lots — tiny releases of 70 to 200kg using varieties like Geisha Honey, Pacamara Natural, and SL28 Honey. These aren't widely available; they're reserved first for recurring Paula 20 Brix buyers and those who've joined an origin trip, keeping the farm's most exclusive coffees connected to the people closest to the project.
Special thanks and love to Finca Santa Elena: Samuel and Paula, Isabela Moncada and her hardworking father, Diego, Hector and his donkey, and the young Miss Ana, who handles administration and traceability at the farm.
Cupping Notes: Chocolate with blackberry, cognac, and oak notes.