We went to Colombia!

Recently one of our team, Seb, went to Colombia with one of our suppliers, Far More Specialty Coffee, who bring us one of our favourite single origin producers, Wilton Benitez from his farm Granja Paraiso 92.

 

This is Seb's POV of the experience:

 

12 days in Colombia, 8 of them on the road:

Bogotá → Pereira → Marsella, Risaralda → 

Salento → Cócora Valley → Buenavista, Quindio →

Popayán, Cauca → Piendamo, Cauca → Bogotá 

 

First stop, Marsella, Risaralda to Mikava Coffee
Where we find Paul Doyle and Kevin Doyle. A father and son duo, who specialise in top tier competition coffee, and, in their words are: particular, hand select what they produce, and push the boundaries without reducing the quality of the coffee. 

 

Immediately as we walk in, SAMPLES lots and lots of experiments.  Paul and Kevin have been playing around with their bioreactor to create known and unknown fermentation processes with their freshly dried green coffee.
Mikava Coffee is known for creating distinct flavour bombs in their coffee, balancing tradition and scientific development which has won them awards and continues to elevate the level of competition coffee.

 

It was such an honour to be apart of Paul and Kevin's processes in cupping and hear what they have planned for their farm in the future.
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Next stop, Buenavista, Quindio, to visit Sara Gutiérrez at her family farm El Silencio.

Sara and her family focus on fostering the most healthy natural environment for coffee growth, as well as incorporating studied knowledge of fermentation in the processing and willing to explore scientific methods.

We had the privilege to travel with Sara for a few days, she welcomed us into her home and heard her story and perspective. As a women producer of coffee in Colombia, and as the president of women in coffee in Colombia. 

I was able to bring back some samples of coffee that Sara has been fine tuning, to amazing results. Our team here at Monastery love an experimental lot which was processed using beer hops.

I hope to be able to bring you guys some of Sara's coffee soon!

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Final stop, Piendamo, Cauca where we meet the well known to us, Wilton Benitez at his family farm, Granja Paraiso 92.

For more Info Check out their website here.

I've been dying to meet Wilton especially because we have sold and continue to sell many of Wilton's lots, ranging in price and never disappointing in quality.

Wilton is an inspiration his willingness to share his years of research and educate anyone who is curious with such passion and joy.

Granja Paraiso 92 is the pinnacle of coffee farms. As soon as we entered the doors of his farm, we knew it was not just a farm. It is a research facility. 

Wilton brought us into his lab and through an extensive presentation proved to us that he has so much control through his molecular knowledge of coffee that he can create any flavour we desire, only because of the amount of experiments he has documented through the years.

We were able to scout the next crop coming over and potentially have reserved one exclusive to Monastery, so keep a look out for that!

Wilton has built these massive stainless steel drying racks, which I describe as coffee dehydrators instead of traditional drying racks, as he is able to monitor and control the temperature of the drying process to a much higher standard.

I would love to encourage anyone who is interested to go visit or reach out to Wilton if you can!

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To finish up I'd love to thank Far More for giving me this opportunity to experience the agriculture, practices and diversity of coffee in Colombia.
To be able to walk along side so many people with completely different perspectives on life in many ways has been a true blessing.

If you'd like to see more of the journey check out my Instagram here: seb.town
I made a few reels showcasing the farms and I had an ongoing vlog series on the journey through Colombia and it is now on my highlights. 

If you'd like to know more? Come to one of our monthly cupping sessions!
Speak to you soon, Seb :)

 

 

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