LimeLight is a divine coffee from a heavenly place brought to you via our partnership with Royal Coffee and Mesa de Los Santos – a coffee estate in the department of Santander, Colombia. But hyperbole aside, this slice of the Andes mountain range has a naturally biodiverse environment perfect for cultivating organic coffee.
Established in 1840, the 800-acre estate was named La Mesa de los Santos, which translates to Table of the Saints. Mesa de los Santos has an impressive history of producing some of the best organic coffee. The founder, Telmo J. Diaz, managed the estate with generosity, integrity, and the search for perfection. The estate’s heritage has been passed down through the family to Telmo’s grandson Oswaldo Acevedo who adheres to his grandfather’s life-long principles.
Our partners at Royal have a decade-long relationship with Oswaldo and La Mesa de Los Santos, which started with a collaborative, fair compensation program designed to pay wages well above the Colombian minimum salary to the workers at La Mesa de Los Santos. Because of the program, workers and their families have also benefited from free healthcare, education stipends for children, insurance coverage for temporary or permanent work disability, and a pension fund to provide retirement benefits.
Organic fertilizer is produced on the estate with compost originating from coffee pulp and chicken manure. Coffee is cultivated under a canopy of guamo, carbonero, and other native shade trees, making the estate a bird-friendly haven and natural fit for certification as a Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC).
During the harvest, a great deal of care and focus is dedicated to picking the best quality cherries delivered to the wet mill located at the estate. Here the coffee is depulped, fermented for 18 hours, washed, gently pre-dried on patios, and then precisely dried for 72 hours inside by solar dryers until 11% moisture content is achieved.
In a cup of LimeLight, you’ll experience notes of lime and melon, paired with the smoothness of milk chocolate, the sweetness of maple syrup, rounded out by the acidity akin to citrus fruits.
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