I tasted the test roast of this coffee at the Crown recently and enjoyed it immensely. It is a very clean, conventional washed process coffee, but with a huge range of zesty botanical flavors in the cup—from pink peppercorn to chamomile, juniper, lime, and fennel. If this sounds a little too “greenish” to you, imagine these flavors more like little garnishes on top of an otherwise sweet, tangy, totally drinkable washed Colombia, and you have a better idea of how good the coffee is. It’s subtle, no doubt about it, but still effusive. It is probably most expressive at a very light roast, but that’s my predictable opinion as someone who loves very light roasts. This tiny lot is, paradoxically, a multi-farm blend. It’s a single cultivar grown and processed on three separate small farms, and the fully dried parchment was blended together. This is a fascinating way to produce coffees this uniquely good. Typically microlots, even in Colombia, are from individual producers, or at least centrally processed. Doing it this way takes a high level of synchronization across farms, in this case kilometers apart and in different microclimates. But the Terra Coffee team lives for these projects. They recruit ambitious growers interested in working together to put out compelling coffees at a scale greater than any one of them is capable of. We are very appreciative of this work. Southern Huila Huila is arguably Colombia’s best-known department for top microlots. Huila’s geographical accessibility, dense population of knowledgeable farmers, warm and subtropical forests, high elevations, and microclimate diversity have for many years sustained one of specialty coffee’s most beloved regions. The fact that most of the department is harvesting coffee almost every month of the year means that fresh coffee is always available. Huila is a long and narrow valley that follows a winding gap between two large cordilleras of the Andes. Colombia’s 950-mile long Magdalena river has its source in southern Huila and has shaped the agriculture here for centuries. Uphill from the valley’s lush and picturesque lower slopes are a diverse array of coffee producing communities, often dramatically steep, and each with their own unique climate and history. Juliana Guevara Finca La Terraza is the name for the farm owned and managed by Juliana Guevara and Weimar Lasso, the duo behind the processor group Terra Coffee (more below). The farm is very passionately run (with a delightful and educational Instagram account no less, @Fincalaterraza). Finca La Terraza resembles countless farms in this part of Colombia, being only a few hectares in size and in a very specific microclimate that encourages coffee trees to fruit nearly the full calendar year—requiring constant monitoring and harvesting in small quantities. We regularly carry their coffees at the Crown. La Terraza has a number of separated varieties, including pacamara, yellow Colombia, and gesha. The farm’s elevation means a cool climate with particularly frigid nights, which retards everything in coffee production that is temperature dependent, including the maturation of cherry on the tree, fermentation, and the drying of parchment. Hernán Calderon Hernán’s farm is located in Acevedo, where he has farmed for more than 20 years. Hernán’s entire philosophy revolves around soil health, doing what he can to preserve and improve the soil at every opportunity. For Hernán, diversifying his coffee cultivars is a way of investing in the farm’s longevity as well as maximizing it’s price potential. He has pink bourbon, gesha, and Colombia, all in addition to the java cultivar used for this lot, each of which have unique climate and pest resistance, in addition to unique characteristics in the cup. Albeiro Ordoñez For many years Albeiro thought his future was in the city. He tried for years to live and work away from the family land, but the rhythms and connections of his childhood, raised by coffee farmers, brought him back. Now he farms alongside his father, Don Luis Ordoñez, and the land has remained in the family for more than 60 years. Albeiro and his dad have planted java, caturra “chiroso”, pink bourbon, and castillo cultivars, seeking to offer various unique coffees that reflect the love and hard work they put into each type. Terra Coffee SAS – Beyong La Terraza Terra Coffee SAS is a local producer group, established in 2016 by Wbeimar and Juliana, with a narrow focus on developing high quality coffees alongside select producers in the Huila and Nariño departments, and sharing them with the world. The small company manages one single producer association in each department where they work, “Ecoterra” in Nariño, with 140 producer partners, and “Terra Verde” in Huila, with 120. For Terra Coffee SAS as a whole, quality in coffee is very rationally understood as a direct pathway to well-being for volume-limited, small coffee farming families. Driving their business model is an understanding that quality results from small harvests have direct impacts on not just the farm owner, but the many dependents on each small farm, including young children, older adults, and the women of the household performing essential labor that often goes unpaid. By increasing quality and placing microlots in the market, Terra Coffee SAS plans not only to increase prices to growers and their families, but also increase their sense of pride in the details of their work.
