In the Grinder - Our Daily Coffee Weblog
Andrew's Trip to Tierradentro, Colombia
November 12, 2010
Tierradentro, Colombia
A few weeks ago I travelled from Popayan across the Western mountain range of Colombia to the valley between the two ranges or Cordilleras to a land called Tierradentro or “The Land Within”. I went to meet personally with the farmers that are responsible for the micro lots of coffee coming out of Inza Colombia.
There is a story to this land that Juan Tama, a hero born from a spring in the mountains, rallied the people to fight back the Conquistadors of the early 1600’s. These indigenous Nasa communities have had independence and sovereignty ever since. Not an easy task when sandwiched between an ever present government, the guerillas fighting that government and the narco-trafficos that also live in this deep mountain terrain.
In 1995 Unesco declared the Tierradentro Reserve to be a world heritage site, a center of historical and cultural heritage; citing mainly the necropolis of pre-hispanic Colombia or the Hippogeos of Tierradentro. It is also home to a group of 1800 families of indigenous Colombians, organized in to six Resquerdos or reserves and eight Cabildos or tribes. The Cabildos provide guidance, technical assistance and quality control to the coffee farming families which receive social benefits and a way to maintain independence. They have been producing coffee for generations but have historically sold in on the street or to an independent collector. Recently though with some guidance and an independent passion, they have been able to commercialize their coffee themselves and it is very nice coffee.
The average farm in this region is about 3 acres with traditional varietals of Typica and Caturra growing amongst a forest of plantains, avacados, mangoes and guayaba fruits. The forest floor is a bed of mosses and what we could consider ornamental plants of pansies, violets and thick ferns. There is ample water coming down out of the mountains that producers use to ferment and wash their coffee. Most have a small hand pulpers out back and ferment overnight in a tub for something like 10-13 hours depending on the ambient temperature and humidity. It is a hand test in the morning to determine if the sugars are off the beans and then in to the drier, a small parabolic drier with a bamboo floor and domed poly roof to keep the afternoons rain off. Once dried it goes to the communal warehouse in town where it is catalogued and cupped.
Another highlight of this trip was to be lucky enough to meet Don Santos from the Kogui community of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta in northern Colombia. There was a peice about these people in national Geographic a few years ago and I am still amazed by their independence and seclusion from modern society.
Don Santos is a Mamos or indigenous authority who was visiting the reserve to share and learn the particulars of coffee production. The Kogui have also been producing coffee for generations and have been struggling to get the coffee to market at a fair rate. I have been invited by Don Santos to come and visit their community so will hopefully have more to share in the future.
Another small highlight was seeing the elusive Orange Caturra. I am not convinced it wasn’t Bourbon but it was orange. Any feedback out there?
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