About This Coffee
Produced in Planadas, Tolima, this ROC-certified Excelso comes from 596 coffee farmers, including 182 women. It is supported by Multicoop, a cooperative formed to unite and support producer associations that had been unable to achieve their associative certification and marketing goals.
Multicoop’s mission is to strengthen the social, economic and cultural conditions of its members by supporting collaborative production, marketing and export services. It plays a key role in improving both coffee quality and livelihoods through sustainable farming practices in the Tolima department.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
To process their coffees, they use a traditional method involving manual harvesting, fermentation in concrete tanks for 18 to 48 hours, and sun-drying under a transparent plastic roof and a rustic parabolic structure made of guadua, as well as on the roofs of houses.
About Tolima
Tolima lies deeply nestled in the Central Andes. While the climate is well suited for coffee production, Tolima has remained a less popular region due to the prevalence of armed conflict and drug trafficking. Many farming communities have been caught in the crosshairs of these conflicts.
More recently, the region has had an opportunity to open up and reduce incidents of violence and drug production or smuggling. Despite its complicated past, Tolima is Colombia’s third-largest coffee-producing department.
In such conditions, producer organizations play an important role in transforming their communities. Associations or cooperatives can create more jobs and make coffee appear more appealing to young people. Many groups in the region organize courses and training to develop barista skills, quality control and even business management.
In a region where the job availability outside of coffee farming is very limited, providing new opportunities for work is essential to draw young people away from becoming involved in the endless cycle of violence and criminality. On top of all the community-wide benefits, being part of a cooperative helps producers gain much better access to support on an agronomical, commercial and economic level.
Coffee in Colombia
Colombia has been producing and exporting coffee renowned for their full body, bright acidity and rich aftertaste, since the early 19th century.
Colombia boasts a wide range of climates and geographic conditions that produce their own unique flavors in coffee. This also means that harvest times can vary quite a bit. In fact, between all its different regions, Colombia produces fresh crop nearly all year round.
The increasing focus on the specialty industry is changing the way traders and farmers do business. It is becoming more common for farmers to isolate the highest quality beans in their lots to market separately. These higher-quality lots are often sold under specific brands or stories.
Besides its wide variety of cup profiles, Colombia has quickly expanded its certification options over the past 10 years. The most common certifications available are Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Organic.