The Project

This coffee is part of a sourcing program through an organization called Origin Coffee Lab. The coffees are either micro lots or communal producer blends from the areas in the north around Jaen and San Ignacio. The farms are normally between 1-3 hectares and are family runned. They harvest, pulp, ferment and dry the coffees at the farms. If the producers are part of a premium program, like ours, they will more likely invest in their production and sit on enough parchment to create potential micro lots.

So far most of our coffees are coming from small caserios (villages) in La Coipa, Colossay, San Ignacio and a few other places. These are all places that we have identified with great potential through selective cupping. We also know that our exporting partner is investing in the producer relations there with support on quality protocols, trace ability programs and premiums.

The concept for us is the same across the communities where we source. We select micro lots of the coffees that are high performing at lot sizes between 10 – 20 bags. And we try to buy producer blends from the same areas as much as we can. The program is based on good premiums paid to the producers across all our coffees. To invest in the communities is crucial to get a consistent supply and to give the farmers incentives to invest.

At the farms

A typical farmer within this programs will have 2 hectares, planted with coffee. They are mainly organic, and many are certified. The varieties will often be mixed, but they mainly have local Bourbons, Caturra, Catuai, some typica.

The farmers help each other in the harvesting season. They have something called “Mingas” that means today for you, tomorrow for me.

After harvesting they will pulp and ferment the coffees in their micro mills at the farms. It’s normally a small pulper and a wooden or concrete fermentation tank. Some do dry fermentation and others do wet fermentation.

The equipment can be extremely simple, but coffees can still be amazing. Some have their own parabolic dryers, others dry on plastic outside their farms, or use a drying facility at their neighbor or relatives place. It sounds rough, but truth is that we have seen amazing coffees, well dried on plastic just outside their front door.

In general

• Average farm size: Less than 2 hectares
• Harvesting season: May – October
• Process: Almost only washed processed at the farms in tiny micro mills
• Fermentation: Mainly dry fermented in small wood or concrete tanks. Some are doing wet fermentation.
• Drying: On plastic on the ground, rooftops, parabolic dryers etc. A few are using tables/african beds.
• Altitudes: Mainly 1600 – 2000 masl
• Varieties: Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, Catuai, Pache, Costa Rica, Catimor. Recently good amounts of Geisha planted
• They measure picking in “Lata” (buckets) 1 lata is 13,5 kg cherry
  20 lata is 1 quintal of greens (46 kg) but is counted in parchment quintal. In this case they count 55 kg of parchment
• They measure in hectares, but do also use the name cuadra or manzanas.
• Normal yield on average farms is about 15-18 Quintales greens per hectares. The really well managed farms can easily double the volumes per hectare.