Colombia Origin Trip: Sourcing Speciality Coffee - Day 7

Welcome to Steve's personal blog from his origin trip to Colombia, where he spent 10 days travelling the country sourcing speciality coffee.

His blog covers his thought and feelings throughout and introduces you to some of the most amazing people/organisations that make up the coffee industry.

Day 7 – Sunday 15th May

For those who have read this so far you will be very surprised to learn that today was another early start. The hotel is an old monastery but is still attached to an active church, in Popayan, they enjoy starting the o’clock chimes at 5am.

I was awake.

The team gathered and were met by CENCOIC (Central Cooperativa Indígena del Cauca) Hernan Castellanos, Lucia Becoche and two drivers. Into the cars we went and away we go.

We stopped off at a roadside café and had breakfast, I decided to follow the locals so had Broth (you know I love a good broth), eggs, rice and arepa (arepa is a type of food made of ground maize dough, eaten in the northern region of South America since pre-Colombian times), delicious, this was then followed by Aguapanella, this is basically a hot water with a lot of panela (hardened sugar cane) in it. It was very very sweet, to be honest, it was too sweet for me but I enjoyed the experience.

Our first farm visit today was El Mango in the Caldono region, owned and ran by Jose Manuel Campu. His daughter Julani and grandson showed us around. Another beautiful farms which was very well kept and some of the trees were packed full of ripe cherries, such vibrant colours! Interestingly, the family had attempted to go 100% organic but due to lack of yields and quality they have decided to go back to using non organic fertilizers and they are actually getting much better results again.

From here, we headed to the La Esperanza Asprole buying station. Its from here all the Caldono coffee will be bought before heading to the CENCOIC dry mill. The team at Asprole were incredibly welcoming and hospitable. They showed us around, and provided us with a delicious ice cream treat.

CENCOIC work with the Asprole and actually bought the land the buying station sits on and gifted it to them. It’s really fantastic to see how the cooperative works with all the groups and farms within the region. As well as the financial benefits, CENCOIC also have numerous technicians who will travel around all the farms and give guidance and training for all the farmers.

The Asperole team were fantastic, a real family feel and we even got to met grandson, little baby Juan. We were all gifted amazing handmade Mochilla’s (shoulder bags), these are traditional bags that many of the indigenous groups still use (including Hernan and CENCOIC manager Juan Carlos), such a lovely moment, extremely generous and we are very grateful.

After saying goodbye to Asprole we headed over towards La Laguna. The Luguna group is made up of 12 farms within the Luguna reserve. Los Aranjes, a family run farm with roughly 3000 coffee trees of the Castillo variety. Heartbreakingly, due to the amount of rainfall this year, they are expecting a yield of 300kg of coffee rather than the usual 500kg, Climate Change is having such a serious effect, really scary stuff.

As well as the coffee, Los Aranjes keep pigs, they actually use the big manure to blend with the coffee cherries (after pulping) and waste scrub plants from the farm to make their own fertilizers. Brilliant to watch as much waste product being re used as possible.

One of the most fascinating this about being in Cacua, and with the Indigenous groups is their beliefs in the spiritual. The farmers here will only harvest when the moon is right. As with the tide, they believe the coffee tress will move with the moon so will never pick during a full moon. Really interesting to hear about these practices as they are so alien to me.

From here we head over to our last farm visit of the trip, I have to say I was gutted, I have loved everything so much and this now signifies the end is nigh.

We set off towards Los Tres Pinos, still part of the Laguna reserve and owned by Husband and wife Carlos and Victoria Ines Cardonia Yotumbo. Now Carlos is employed by CENCOIC as one of their ground technicians so wife Victoria runs the farm. Brilliant to see and what and incredibly well maintained, well thought out and super clean, it was spotless. With only 0.5 hectares of land Victoria maximises her potential by being certified organic to allow her to sell the coffee at a premium. A perfect farm to finish the rural experience with, Thank you Victoria.

Back to the hotel, a nice meal and Club Colombia to finish the day. Now, as we set down to eat, a mini Covid outbreak occurred, two of the group tested positive for Covid 19. This was a real concern as we had been out in rural Colombia and did not want to pass anything on. We made contact with CENCOIC to  let them know, everyone else tested negative so we were hopeful it wouldn’t spread.

Last day tomorrow…

Steve Hampshire

Head of Coffee