Colombia
Nariño
Smallholder Producers
Smallholder Farms
Caturra
Natural
Year-round
Cacao Nibs, Apple, Lime, Rose Hips
1900 meters
N/A
70 kg w/ GrainPro
SOLD OUT
The town of Buesaco lies on a ridge high in the Andes mountains of the Nariño department of Colombia. Promotora de Cafés de Altura has its offices, cupping lab, and warehouses there, where the co-op collects coffees from smallholder producers whose farms are tucked into the slopes surrounding the town.
The co-op cups coffees throughout harvest delivery to build lots that are uniform and consistent in screen size and cup profile. This lot is made up of Caturra variety coffee from areas located within the rural area of the municipality of Buesaco; a coffee region by tradition, as are the villages of Sumapaz, El Naranjal, Ortega, La Loma and Santa Maria. These regions share similar geographic characteristics—altitudes between 1800 and 2000 meters, a dry climate, and a broken relief. The varieties grown by coffee farmers still are traditional ones such as Caturra, Colombia, and Castillo.
Most contributing producers have small plots of land between 1 and 2.5 hectares. This relatively small plot size allows these producers to devote precise and thoughtful attention to their plants, which benefited the resulting lot of coffee greatly. Producers handle traditional practices such as palería (shovel work) and weed management with scythe and machete. Fertilization is distributed between two and three times a year according to the insight of the farmer and the climatic conditions of the region.
Post-harvest processing was monitored by the quality team of the Promotora de Cafés de Altura, who together with the producers established the protocols for this lot of coffee. Only ripe cherries are harvested, after which they are taken to be sorted via floatation. Cherries are then disinfected before being dry fermented in hermetically sealed polyethylene tanks for 120–170 hours. Brix degrees, pH, and temperature are monitored and recorded every 12 hours during the fermentation process. The fermented cherries are then dried, with most being dried in mechanical dryers with temperatures no lower than 35°C. Mechanically dried cherries are dried in intervals, with 12 hours spent in the dryer and then 12 hours resting, repeated for seven days. Some batches of cherries in this lot are exclusively sun dried, which takes 18 days of drying.
Nariño is one of Colombia’s 32 Departments. It shares a southern border with Ecuador and is home to thousands of smallholder coffee producing families. Colombia’s three ranges of Andean mountains converge in Nariño, presenting ideal altitudes and fertile soil for high grown Arabica production.
Nariño’s particular geography and proximity to coastal and land borders have historically transformed it into a corridor for illicit trade routes, resulting in unwarranted violence against residents of remote mountain farms. Today, thanks to the particularly resilient and fearless spirit of Nariño’s farmers, the small region is a respected nucleus of coffee innovation.
