The farmers we buy from work in relationship with our exporter and their team of agronomists and the staff for quality control. The producers delivers the parchment to a Bodega where the coffees will be analyzed, cupped, and kept separate for our approval.

The purchasing point is managed by a great, young team. They are also producers and have a good network of young producers, and credibility among the farmers who deliver to the bodega. Pedro, the QC director and head agronomist is overseeing all the departments they work in. The quality parameters they work with is Yield Factor 91, 11% H, and then they have different cup score tiers for micro lots and regional coffees.

Most of the producers here works in smaller growers associations. Our buying criteria for quality is the same. We are looking for coffees with unique and distinct character, scoring on a level of 85 points and up. They also have to meet our standards of maximum moisture level of 11%.

Tolima

Tolima lies just north of Huila in the Central/south part of the country. It has its main harvest around June – August, unlike other regions like Huila they are mainly having one harvest period per year. We have worked there for years, but not with the organic coffees. There has been some tough decades in Tolima, and they have been very affected by the gerilja activities. Previously it was dangerous to travel in many of the coffee growing areas, but it has settled down lately. The farmers really need ours and yours support, and there is tons of potential.

The flavor profiles of Tolima is slightly different than for the other regions we buy from. They can typically be bright and delicate, with subtle fruit and berry notes. Many of them also with a nice and clean cocoa like sweetness.

Picking

Coffees are picked in 3-4 passes. Meaning the producers/workers pick the more or less ripe cherries in one block. Then they might wait a few weeks until it’s again a descent amount of ripe cherries to pick in that same place. Generally the first and last pass is of lower quality, and the second and third will be considered as the best, with more ripe cherries and uniform quality. When we can, we try to buy parchment harvested in these two passes.

Processing

The coffee from Tolima is generally fully washed, meaning pulped and fermented the traditional way. There is a few exceptions where farmers are using eco-pulpers with mechanical removal of mucilage, and/or are doing honeys, but it’s still not to common.

Dry fermentation

This is the most common and widely used method. The farmer will have a small beneficio, a small manual or electric pulper and a fermentation tank. They pulp the cherries in the afternoon. The coffees are going straight from the pulper in to the fermentation tank. It can sit there from one to two days, depending on the temperature. Higher temperature will speed up the fermentation process, and lower temperature will slow it down. Some producers do intermediate rinsing with water, that can also help them control the process.

Washing and grading

They normally stir the coffees in tanks or small channels before they remove the floaters. For the ones without channels it’s common to wash the coffees in the fermentation tank and skim off the floaters before it goes to the drying.

Drying

For the smallholders in regions like Tolima the coffees are commonly sun dried in parabolic dryers that almost works as green houses. The better producers have well ventilated facilities. There are many different variations and constructions, but generally they are all systems that is able to protect the coffee from rain.

We have generally seen that the producers that have constructions with good ventilation and manage to dry the coffee down to below 11% in 10 – 18 days often have very good and consistent coffees.

By receiving premium payments, the producers can improve their facilities, by building new or reconstruct the dryers to increase ventilation and potentially add shade nets to slower drying, and hence improve the quality and longevity of the coffee.