Origin: Understanding Where your Coffee Comes From

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmG-X5ExY8o

 

Imagine this: You step onto a coffee farm. Humidity touches your skin and enters your lungs. Vibrant, luscious nature is all around you, and a rhythmic picking of coffee cherries fills the background.

It can become commonplace to pick up a bag of roasted beans from a local shop, take it home, and brew it without a second thought. However, meeting face-to-face with those who grew, sorted, and shipped out the beans piling in your grinder offers a new perspective.

 

a journey begins in medellín + santa bárbara

In the specialty coffee industry, visiting origin holds much more significance than simply checking an item off a bucket list. Cartel’s Green Coffee Buyer, Sebastian, recently traveled to Medellín, Colombia. With a small group of other coffee professionals, over the course of nine days, he traversed Antioquia and filled his cup – with experiences, and of course, coffee.

In Medellín, Sebastian met up with Angel and Mariya, the owners/green buyers for Olfactory Coffee in Essex, UK, Grant, of Mac and Me Coffee in Chelmsford, UK, and Juan from Mercanta UK. He also met Greg from Red Silo, a roaster in Denver. They set off to visit three farms in Santa Bárbara; Finca Agualinda, Finca Loma Verde, and El Jardín.

He learned both Agualinda and Loma Verde have reduced their production to about a quarter due to the difficulties of climate change. These farms have had to pivot from volume to focus on quality, relying on smaller, but better-yielding harvests. Interestingly, 30-40 drying beds at Loma Verde – each of these giant beds (approximately 40-50’ x 10’) when filled with naturals for drying – generates about a single 70kg bag for export.

The coffee cultivation process takes years. In fact, seedlings must root downward, and if a corkscrew shape forms, they’ll need to be culled. It takes an average of three years for trees to bear fruit, and five to seven years for full yields to develop.

Soil, climate, and hardworking hands shape every harvest. Together, these aspects make up the foundation of coffee quality.

Venturing to urrao

The group made their way out to Urrao, which is about four hours west of Medellín. They visited three farms in Urrao, two of which are in the valley of La Despensa (‘The Pantry’); one run by Fray David.

A majority of growers utilize wet fermentation, as the humidity isn’t ideal for natural processing. Despite its size, and due to its volcanic soil and high altitudes, Urrao produces exceptional beans. Chiroso is the primary varietal here – Colombian slang for something that is elongated, like a dachshund – which is what they used as an example.

While most places have a defined harvest, this is not true for Colombia. Actually, it’s one of the only areas in the world where flowers, green cherries, and ripe cherries can live simultaneously on a single branch of the same tree. Farmers have an expression for this which loosely translates to “money for every day of the year.”

Vereda el Noque

Day five was a visit to Don Ruben’s in Vereda el Noque at 2100 MASL – a farm considerably higher in elevation than the average coffee farm in Colombia.

Thirty-eight years ago, after he’d saved enough from his job as a picker, Don Ruben purchased his own farm; the cheapest land he could get his hands on. At that time, the climate was markedly cooler and output was unsatisfactory at such high elevation. 

Today, Don Ruben is in a sweet spot for the intersection of quality and yield, growing chiroso, yellow bourbon, caturra, and gesha coffees. Cherries are piped across the valley to the wet mill. The cooler temperatures require dry fermentation because water slows the process.

LA ESTRELLA DRY MILL

The group toured the La Estrella Dry Mill, where coffee gets hulled, sorted, and cupped for scoring. High-quality lots are priced accordingly and are sold individually or blended with nearby lots to intentionally illustrate their character. Additionally, beans are sorted by color after hulling to separate specialty from commodity coffee. A sizable amount of passable green winds up in commodity-grade leavings; sold for mass production purposes to ensure specialty green is as clean as possible.

They toured Pergamino’s current production space (roasters, cold brewing room, and packaging) above the dry mill and cupped in the on-site QC lab. They sipped on 60 coffee samples presented four ways, all from Antioquia.

Pergamino’s newest production facility includes a 4-story warehouse, space for a 70kg Probat, separate hot and cold kitchens, bakery, offices, a training facility and a cafe with a view of Medellín.

 

DEPARTURE

The last stop was at Pergamino café in Rionegro Airport before boarding flights back to the states.

 

REFLECTING ON SPECIALTY COFFEE

Colombia’s coffee narrative is one of persistence and innovation in the face of economic and environmental uncertainty alike. Minimum wage for employees in Colombia equals about $300 per month with an overwhelming majority of farmers averaging about one-third of this amount. Moreover, economic imbalance has driven younger generations to leave family farms behind to move to urban areas presenting better opportunities.

Producers worldwide essentially have two paths they can take to improve their income and well-being: boost yields or coffee quality. Increasing yields can mean industrializing farm processes, while increasing quality requires resources such as knowledge often inaccessible, money up front for fertilizer, access to better seeds, etc. Because of Colombia’s landscape – steep terrain – growers aren’t able to industrialize farming the same as places like Brazil. This means the only viable way to bolster standard of living for most smallholders is by improving quality.

Despite a myriad of complexities and complications, including finding workers willing to pick coffee cherries and prices based on the commodity market, specialty coffee persists. The dedicated farmers our green coffee buyer met are sacrificing and adapting. 

Here’s the bottom line: Each and every cup of coffee has a story to tell, and it’s time we listen. Supporting your local roaster, paying fair prices, and educating yourself about the intricacies of specialty coffee is more important now than it ever has been. By choosing to buy specialty coffee, you’re helping prove that a world where sustainable, equitable coffee is possible.