Colombia Origin Trip: Sourcing Speciality Coffee - Day 2

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 2 – Tuesday 10th May

After a solid night's sleep, I awoke earlier and thought I would have  a little look around, wowzers!! As we arrived in the dark, (and let me tell you, there is very little light pollution in rural Colombia so when its dark, its really dark) I couldn’t see the surroundings or the place itself.

The hotel Fina El Roble was beautiful, nestled in the mountain region of Bolivar, still a cloud covering the mountains as the sun fought to break though, how lucky I am to watch this, nature at it’s finest.

Marie, the hotel hostess prepared us a beautiful breakfast, local watermelon and mango, fried corn tortillas, scrambled eggs & rice and beans. Alongside a nice filter coffee, what a way to start a day.

After a wonderful breakfast we headed up and further into the mountains. Like a scene from Jurassic park, such lush greenery, rolling hills as far as the eye can see, I kept expecting to see Jeff Goldblum getting chased by a T-Rex. The photos do not do this area justice.

We headed up to the Yarumal farm, ran by second generation coffee farmer, Jose Restrepo Perez his father Pedro Jose Restrepo Perez started growing coffee at Yarumal in 1968. Even with the language barrier, I could tell Pedro was passionate about his farm.

At 1900masl, I could feel the air thinning but that didn’t stop me enjoying Pedro’s presentation. It was incredibly interesting to listen in (expertly translated by Hernan). It was fascinating to learn that Pedro, his mum and dad were all kidnapped for ransom in the early 1990s by the Colombian guerrillas, his father held captive for 11 months. It really bought home the struggles of the Colombian people during this time, scary stuff. Sometimes we don’t realise quite how fortunate we are.

We then had a full tour of the farm & process plant. What a setup, some incredible innovations to assist with the picking, in essence drainpipes were installed from the mountains into the mill so the cherries pickers didn’t have to carry the loads back down. Just flush the cherries with a little water and let gravity do the rest.

The trees were beautifully maintained, and so healthy looking. The ripe cherries were sweet, juicy, with a crisp red pepper flavour, I am in love with his place. Pedro is looking at using mechanical pickers to assist with harvest, if done correctly this can increase production but it can really help with the pickers physical health, its not easy being a coffee picker.

I really could wax lyrical about the farm for days, the nursery was stunning, all the seedlings were in cased in a biodegradable bag rather than traditional plastic, and these little seedlings and new trees were stunning.

The mill was a fantastic set up, well thought through, lots of investment in technology. Here, they use a mechanical system to get a washed process coffee (using water to remove the coffee mucilage), this way they are using 0.7 litres of water per kg of coffee washed compared to the usual 40 litres for a traditional washed coffee. Amazing stuff, this also helps with the environmental premium they need to pay to the Colombian Government. It’s safe to say I loved Yarumal, I will hopefully return on day.

No rest for the wicked though, from here we headed on a short drive to San Fernando Coffee farm, we were greeted by Davide, a third generation farmer. The farm was owned by his grandad, Umberto Gonzalez. The Gonzalez family were now proud to have around 135 hectares of farm.

After a quick chat we headed to the first 4×4 experience of the trip. I love it when the Jeeps come out to play. Crammed in, we headed up. Its so much fun in the back of a 4×4 on a coffee farm, seeing the amazing terrine and feeling the path get worse and worse, such an experience. You are driving very close to the edge and it is not for the faint hearted. The views, the experience were breath-taking.

We stopped at various points to talk about the coffee farm. Davide was very forward thinking and had actually stripped a piece of the farm bare in preparation of planting a new varietal of coffee, one that would be more robust against coffee rust. I have to say it was hard to take in what Davide was saying as each stopping point offered another view of the country side, it really is incredible and I know I’ve said it before, but the pictures do not do it justice. Another fantastic couple of hours on a farm.

From here we headed for lunch, Carlos and wife Silvia had put on a fantastic spread. Pork belly, plantain, rice and a bean and pork knuckle soup, so tasty, this also came with a raw milk and corn beverage, this was less so tasty.

After lunch Carlos showed off his coffee roaster and I tried some of his locally farmed, locally processed and locally roasted coffee, what a rubbish day at work I’m having. after this the Racafe team did a short presentation on their business model and sustainability programme. It’s fascinating listening to them talk about coffee,

Surprisingly to me, a lot of what they do is low grade commercial coffee, this is sold to the local market as most of the quality speciality graded coffee is exported outside of South America.

After a quick stop to look at a small purchasing station ran by Racafe in Bolivar, we headed back to Medellin for hotel and dinner. The hotel was great, Seven Inn. We wandered out to grab a bite to eat and the vibe of the city was amazing , vibrant, colourful, loud and felt very local, in a positive way.

I would have loved to have stayed out and experienced a little more night life but after such a long but unbelievable day, it was time for bed. What a trip, what an experience, and its only day two… Let’s see what tomorrow has in store.

Steve Hampshire

Head of Coffee