Back to Colombia Huila and Tolima Regions
Day 1
As I had a feeling that the Colombian harvest seemed bit late, I and some guests took the first plane down to Bogota and further into Neiva in the Huila Region last week.
Before flying to Neiva, we made a quick visit at Wolthers & Vittrup – Quality Assurance Lab for some overall Colombian coffee cupping.
Sandra Sanchez/Director of Quality at W & V and her team prepared a table with 4 new crop Excelso coffees, Risaralda, Cauca, Narinho and Cundinamarca.
Narinho was the winner with excellent body, good acidity and plenty of high notes sweetness and desirable aftertaste.
Day 2
As I had a feeling that the Colombian harvest seemed bit late, I and some guests took the first plane down to Bogota and further into Neiva in the Huila Region last week.
Before flying to Neiva, we made a quick visit at Wolthers & Vittrup – Quality Assurance Lab for some overall Colombian coffee cupping.
Sandra Sanchez/Director of Quality at W & V and her team prepared a table with 4 new crop Excelso coffees, Risaralda, Cauca, Narinho and Cundinamarca.
Narinho was the winner with excellent body, good acidity and plenty of high notes sweetness and desirable aftertaste.
Day 3
Next morning it was time to drive South into the Sur Huila Region and we took the Mountain route through Gigante and into Garzon, Timana, Pitalito and arriving at San Augustin late in the afternoon.
In Gigante we stopped at MCCH’s local technical assistance station where Adriana received us and guided us up to Finca El Pinhal managed by Carlos Andres, this is a 4 hectare property with a bit more mechanization in the dry mill procedures.
Most of the plants were the new Castilla variety and in the top a bit Caturras. Again the same scenario we had seen at Las Delicias and along the 75 km’s through the Gigante plantations, all 2 to 4 hectare and family driven.
The renovation from the older Caturra and Colombia varieties to the more Roja resistant Castilla plants is evident and massive; it is as if the whole of South Colombia has been renovated at once!
Productivity also seems high for these new plants; there is a lot of reality when forecast for Colombian yields are high these days.
From Finca El Pinhal we drove down to Garzon for a quick lunch stop and to see Colombia beat Ivory Coast 2 – 1 and experience the total party madness that took over the small town!
Timana was our next stop, here MCCH holds a close relationship with the local Timana Relationship Coffee Association, and we cupped excellent new crop coffees while inspecting a shipment of pergaminio Fair Trade Coffees sold to MCCH earlier in the week.
After Timana, MCCH’s Pitalito office was our destination, Yohana from the Neiva headquarters was there and prepared a series of samples for cupping, here the samples from neighboring villages were side by side.
San Augustin, Pitalito, Acevedo and Suaza and some other Gigante and Garzon new crops, all cupped excellent and full of character!
The night was spent in a Finca Hotel up in San Augustin at 5350′ altitude and surrounded by coffee plantations almost in a chain formation from Pitalito to the mountain village.
Day 4
We drove back down from San Augustin to Pitalito shooting video and photos of the mountain plantations, then an additional table of local samples was waiting at MCCH’s office, Pitalito scored the highest points on a table of 6 local crops.
The afternoon visit was to Acevedo 25 KM over the eastern mountain rim where MCCH has a buying station and a warehouse.
In Acevedo at the office, we met with Maria Clemencia Hernandez from Finca Las Hermosas, she is part of the “Mujeres en Café” an Association which MCCH supports.
Maria Clemencia has 12 children and 8 still live at home and the older 2 sons help in the Finca, her brother who lives in the Finca across the hill also helps with the agricultural score year around.
Finca Las Hermosas is an usual supplier of MCCH and the focus now is in producing better quality and attracting roasters that are in the ” Mujeres en Café” program in order to improve the quality of life of this family.
From Acevedo, we returned to Neiva, the by car took 4.5 hours to cover 140 KM, this due to the many curves but mostly due to road improvement, Colombia is in fact booming!
Day 5
We returned to Bogota and then to Miami but will soon return to Neiva as MCCH is holding a Quality Competition for coffees from the Region on August 1st.
Our clients are invited; contact us for further information regarding the different opportunities for roasters in this event.
Regarding the delayed harvest, it is in fact about 50 days late due to climatic conditions, mainly in the highlands; this has caused some shipment delays soon to be resolved.
On the other hand, we at Wolthers Douqué and MCCH are already able to offer limited quantities of nearby new crop shipments of the finest Regional Excelso EP’s and some Supremos, please request offers if interested.
Regarding other Fine coffees and our always “Outstanding” NUCOFFEE Brazil offers and spot inventory, please look into our Offer List, call for samples and prices.
