Don Eli - Anaerobic Honey

About This Coffee

Carlos Montero has been growing coffee his whole life and comes from a long line of farmers. He had the vision of processing their own coffee fruit and working more directly with consumers - and the vision became a reality by constructing Don Eli (named after his father) in 2014. Jacob, Carlos’ son, has taken charge of the wet mill over the years and has honed his passion for processing coffee cherries. In 2025, they added a humble dry mill station to prepare their parchment for export. Continuing the trend of adding to their skillset, improving quality, and strengthening their direct relationships. Anaerobic Process - Carlos and Jacob do their very best at trying to select only the ripest cherries from the farm. The fresh fruit is brought down to the wet mill and placed into plastic tanks that are closed and sealed off. The coffee will be there fermenting for 4-5 days. Then, the cherries are removed and depulped to remove the skin - what is left on the parchment is fermented mucilage that will be absorbed into the bean as it is sun-drying. Jacob lays out the slimy, fermented parchment in a thick layer on raised drying beds. For the first 2 or 3 days there is little intervention, minimally moving the coffee. As the drying phase continues the coffee gets more spread out into a thin layer and moved more frequently. All of this work results in a uniquely fruity cup while still preserving some of the clean characteristics we like to see in other processes - it’s like a hybrid process. Recent Projects - There are always new things happening at Don Eli, Carlos cannot keep still for a second - always moving and working on projects! This season, Jacob and Carlos added mechanical drying to the mill and expanded fermenting and warehousing spaces.