Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/804825
acres. Compare that to the average farm size in the United States, 400+ acres, and you can better appreciate how so many Colombians are involved in coffee. Second, some 99 percent of Colombian farmers grow and wet mill their own coffee. This gives them control of their coffee and the costs associated with it. It also allows those who strive for coffee-quality excellence to achieve it individually. Finally, the average age of the co-op's members is 57. Every year, that average number increases due to the departure of youth from the family coffee farms. This is a story I hear in just about every coffee country I have visited. At some point, this could become a worldwide production crisis. We traveled by road to one of Cadefi huila's buying stations, which is one of several that collects the pergamino, grades the coffee, and pays the farmers. Prior to export, the dry mill and the central offi ce in Bogotá will re-grade the coffee to ensure it matches the quality profi le of the customer. These checks act as a guarantee of quality, which translates into happier customers. The combination of the grade and weight is what makes up most of the price paid. If the coffee has a cer- tifi cation, there is an additional premium added, fi nalizing the price. On the day we visited, the co-op was paying the highest prices for 4C (regional designation) and FLO/Fair Trade. They pay premi- ums for roughly nine certifi cations. One certifi cation you don't see very often in Colombia is organic. The Federation's focus has been on improving yield, which means they do not encourage the low- er-yield practice of growing organically. Because Peerless is big into certifi ed-organic coffees, I'm disappointed there's not more avail- able here, but we continue to source some organics from Colombia, primarily in the north. One of the farmers I met had traveled by bus to the station. She has a small, 5-acre farm and takes pride in producing a quality cof- fee—and she received the highest quality premium offered that day for her coffee. From the buying stations, the pergamino is trucked to Neiva, where Cadefi huila operates a large dry mill called CafeTrilla. This dry mill is co-owned by the two co-ops in Huila. If you're lucky, you will be greeted at the mill by their pet iguanas, which are the size of small dinosaurs! CafeTrilla has a stringent quality program and will sample a lot numerous times. This is the second of three checkpoints where a lot's quality is confi rmed. They then bag the green coffee and ship it off to the port, where it boards a ship to far-off places like Oakland. At the stencil station, they apply the individual lot marks and any other notes to the jute bags, including logos like ours. The white jute bags are fairly unique to Colombia. Most other countries have a brown jute bag, but every bag of Colombian green coffee from this mill gets Colombia as a whole, and specifi cally Huila, is having a big crop this year. It's obvious from how weighed down the trees are with cherry. Castillo is the leading variety now grown within Colombia. While rust resistance was the key driver for the switch from heirlooms to the FNC-designed Castillo, the cups that I tasted showed minimal if any quality diff erence from their other varietals. Win-Win. 54 barista magazine