About This Coffee
Cooperative de Caficultores de Manizales was founded in 1960 in Caldas. The cooperative helps growers get fair prices for their coffee, improve coffee quality and raise the quality of life for producers and their families. Today, the cooperative has 3,646 members.
Membership helps producers better access markets for their coffee. Producers also get fair credit, agronomic training and access to infrastructure. They have a wide range of programs that support farmers including: sanitation updates for homes and villages, drying infrastructure improvement, credit-access, health days, support for bereaved spouses and more. The cooperative provides technical assistance with field agronomists.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Coffee is processed on individual member farms. Producers selectively handpick ripe, red cherry. Cherry is visually hand-sorted, pulped and fermented. After fermentation, coffee is washed in clean water and then dried. Producers rake parchment frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 10 to 20 days for parchment to dry.
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.