About This Coffee
Established in 1980, CENCOIC (Central Cooperativa Indigena Del Cauca) is a cooperative composed of indigenous communities in Cauca, Colombia. The cooperative focuses on strengthening economic development in indigenous communities by providing economies of scale and development support to community stores, groups and individual producers.
Stores supported by CENCOIC enable the distribution of basic goods and agronomic inputs to farming communities and also provide infrastructure to enable CENCOIC to purchase crops from producers in the community.
CENCOIC began developing its fair trade strategy in 2004. In line with its focus on supporting indigenous communities and increasing producer incomes, CENCOIC’s fair trade program seeks to increase the market power of small producers and help its members garner higher prices for the crops.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Farmers selectively handpick ripe cherry and process it on their farms. Some farmers lightly ferment cherry by leaving it in loosely-lidded boxes overnight before pulping. Once pulped, cherry is fermented in tanks for 16 to 20 hours, and then washed in clean water. Parchment is laid in parabolic dryers and raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 10 to 15 days for parchment to dry.
About Cauca
Alongside Nariño and Huila, Cauca is becoming part of the “New Coffee Triangle.” Named after the Eje Cafetero, the region that was once the heart of Colombia’s coffee production, this New Coffee Triangle takes advantage of the high altitudes from the Andes Mountains and water-rich drainage basins that abound in the region.
In Cauca, most coffee is grown in small plots by rural and largely indigenous communities. More than 90,000 families cultivate approximately 93,000 hectares of coffee across Cauca. The most common varieties are Castillo, Colombia, Caturra, Typica, Bourbon and Tabí.
Like Nariño and Huila, Cauca is emerging from a long history of armed conflict and drug smuggling, which isolated the region and made it difficult to maintain coffee traceability.
Covid-19 Impact
We were excited to contract these microlots from two cooperative in Cauca for the first time this year. Unfortunately, the novel coronavirus outbreak that the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March 2020, made gathering comprehensive traceability information difficult this year. In the coming season, we hope to work with these producers to expand upon their stories and provide you for with more comprehensive cultivation and processing information.
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, in turn, 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, UTZ and Organic.