faqs

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answers

1.

What is the best coffee origin in Colombia?
We have tasted good coffees from almost every coffee producing region in Colombia. Having said that, during the last five years we have consistently found that the coffee produced in the South of the country (i.e., Cauca, Huila, Nariño and Tolima) is of better quality than that of the rest of the country. This does not mean that it is not possible to find good quality coffee in the rest of the country. On the contrary, one day we may be surprised that the best coffee in Colombia may come from traditional coffee growing regions such as Antioquia, Caldas or Santander, just to mention a few other origins.

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2.

What is the difference between Typica, Bourbon and Caturra?
Please visit our section "Varieties Grown in Colombia" under "Colombian Coffee" for information about each variety.

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3.

How many cups of each lot do you taste before export?
This really depends on the number of coffee growers that supply coffee to a particular lot and on the number of 70-kg bags of the lot. For example, for a 100-bag lot we may taste more than 100 cups during the parchment purchasing stage and another 50 cups during the green coffee quality control process. We definitely do not cut corners wherever quality is involved.

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4.

What is the difference between an Estate Coffee and a Relationship Coffee?
An Estate coffee is grown in a single farm or in farms that are owned by a single person and use the same wet mill and drying facilities in order to guarantee consistency in the cup. A Relationship Coffee is produced by several small coffee growers in different farms, usually located in the same region and microclimate and part of the same cooperative or association of growers. In Colombia, in general, we have found that the quality of the coffee produced by small coffee grower is better than that of large estates because usually small coffee growers tend to take better care of their farms and do a better job during the beneficio and drying stages.

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5.

Is there some type of third party verification to the Direct Relationship model?
No. The Relationship model is based on trust between all the participants in the coffee chain (roaster, importer, exporter, growers), which is developed thanks to the transparency of the process. In a nutshell, under a relationship coffee scheme everybody is aware of what everybody else is doing.

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6.

What are the key factors for producing high quality coffee?
Quality in coffee is a result of many factors. First there is the cultivar/variety factor. Today most cuppers will agree that most Arabica coffee can be of high quality. Then there is the origin, where environmental factors such as rainfall, soil and temperature make their own contribution to quality. But the trickiest part is the contribution that coffee growers make towards quality. Coffee is still a very artisan product, and as such the care, dedication and attention to detail that a coffee growers gives to his coffee during the growth stages of the plant, as well as during the harvest (cherry picking) and post-harvest stages (beneficio and drying), in the end is what ultimately determines the quality of his coffee. The latter is the reason why we think there aren't specialty coffees but special or exceptional coffee growers.

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7.

How do you determine quality in coffee?
Quality in coffee can be determined by an objective way and a subjective way. The objective way is by analysing the physical quality of the coffee (i.e., humidity, percentage or number of defective beans in a sample, color, etc.). The more defects a sample has, the higher the probability that in the cup you will find taints or defects. The subjective way is by cupping or tasting a coffee sample. Cupping depends a lot on the cuppers impression of quality. For example, one cupper may like more acid coffees while another will like more balanced coffees. Or maybe the taste (flavours) of one coffee are more appealing to one cupper than the other. We believe that a high quality coffee must be free of physical defects, have a clean and consistent cup and must show really defined flavours consistently over time.

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