María Belén Díaz, Colombia — May 2026

MAY SUBSCRIPTION

Hello all,

María Belén Díaz, Colombia (Papayo Variety)

This is our first time sharing a Papayo variety in quite a while, and it felt like a fitting coffee to slot into the mix, especially given how many people have been enjoying it in-store recently.

Maria Belén Díaz has been connected to coffee her entire life, growing up as the daughter of a coffee producer in Colombia. She has now been producing specialty coffee for over 12 years and, over that time, has developed a particularly thoughtful and intentional approach to quality and processing. Alongside producing coffee on her farm in Acevedo, Huila, Maria also spent several years working as a coffee quality analyst in Cauca, where she developed her cupping skills and a deeper understanding of how processing and production shape flavour in the cup.

Together with her husband, Narciso Narváez, and their three sons, Maria produces coffee on their farm, Resinas. The family originally arrived in Acevedo as workers and, through years of hard work and saving, were eventually able to purchase their own land. Today, they grow varieties including Papayo, Gesha, Borbón Rosado, Castillo, and Caturra, while continuing to refine their work year after year.

This Papayo lot stood out to us immediately because of how distinct its profile is. There is a herbaceous character running through the cup that makes the coffee feel incredibly unique — fresh, tropical, and almost botanical at times. It carries a lot of flavour intensity, but in a way that still feels composed, rather than overly dominated by processing.

Roasting side note: We found that if we pushed the colour darker and development slightly further, we would begin to emphasise more of the processing characteristics, slowly masking some of the coffee's softer tropical undertones and layered herbal qualities. Over time, we kept pulling the roast lighter and lighter, trying to preserve clarity and nuance while still developing enough sweetness and internal balance to support the structure of the cup.

We've especially enjoyed watching this coffee open up with a little extra rest post-roast, where its herbal tones and tropical fruit character seem to become more integrated and expressive over time.

We hope you've been enjoying spending some time with it.

Take care,
Ben