TENTUK
TENTUK is a washed coffee from Mesa de Quintero, in the Mocotíes Valley of Mérida, Venezuela, grown by Falsir Durán on his farm, Los Naranjos.
A clean washed process gives a round, generous cup with notes of dark chocolate, vanilla and nuts, lifted by cherry, citrus and a touch of white pepper. Grown at 1,800 metres in deep, fertile soils, TENTUK shows a side of Venezuelan coffee that is still rarely seen in Europe. Its name reflects what you notice first in the cup: a creamy body that fills the mouth and a long, lingering finish.
Falsir Durán
Falsir planted his first 2,000 Villa Nueva trees after a meeting at a coffee company in San Cristóbal convinced him that coffee had a future in his region. Today he farms 104 hectares, 99 of them in coffee, under partial shade and with a mix of organic and conventional practices.
Since then he has invested steadily in hulling and washing equipment, drying patios and farm administration, and he opens this infrastructure to neighbouring producers. He has donated around four million seeds to other growers in the region, working with his family and community to renew the plantations around him.
Better processing at Los Naranjos means better coffee for the whole valley.
Los Naranjos lies in the Mocotíes Valley, a long valley carved by the river of the same name and part of the Lake Maracaibo basin. Between the lake and the river, the valley holds a microclimate that has produced high-altitude coffee since colonial times, on deep soils balanced in sand, lime and clay and rich in organic matter.
