Viva Colombia: Introducing the “Regional Select Project”

Posted on September 11th, 2013

We have just completed nearly 6 weeks of cupping Colombian offers from the June-July harvest which comes primarily from the South (see map below) of the country; both Principal harvests and Mitaca (fly) crops and we have some really great coffees coming.
These coffees include: A new FTO group from Cauca, some outstanding micro-lots from a competition in Huila, some ACES contenders from Banexport in Popayan, and a new program that we are really excited about called “Regional Select Project”.
Colombia.png
For the fun of it, last week I took the data from the last nine years of COE competitions in Colombia and sorted it by region to see where the top coffees from the competition have been coming from.

Region Winners

%

Huila

106

42%

Narino

41

16%

Tolima

33

13%

Cauca

25

10%

Meta

16

6%

Santander

9

4%

Antioquia

7

3%

Boyaca

5

2%

Caldas

3

1%

Cucuta

2

1%

Quindio

2

1%

Risaralda

1

0%

Valle del Cauca

1

0%

This data supports the “Regional Select Project” we are creating in Colombia. This project aims to highlight the special unique profiles we have found are somewhat inherent in specific microregions within Colombia due to microclimate, processing legacy, variety, and overall terroir.  The regions we will begin highlighting to start are Huila, Narino, Cauca and Tolima.
Remember that the average Colombian farmer has only about 3 hectares of coffee that might produce 60 bags of exportable quality coffee. So, as the harvest season progresses, they might make 3 -4 trips to town bringing 10-15 bags of coffee. Those receipts are cupped in the regional lab of Banexport and set aside for us if they are top quality and pass the strict standards we have in place. We then cup the coffees here in Minneapolis and set aside everything above 86 points. We will recup them again to sort out the coffees above 90 points for our ACES program and keep the 86-88 coffees together by community for our new “Regional Select Project”.
We are obviously paying a premium for anything above 86 and a lot more for coffees above 90 points with the idea that quality coffee takes more time and effort and is worth more to all of us.
Best Regards,
Andrew
 
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