It has been a while since I visited Colombia and it has also taken some time before I got to write about what I discovered there. I am very proud to be able to tell you that we did not only find great coffee there, we also found a plantation that we are trying to work out a relationship with. Mr. Alvaro Diaz who owns Finca La Lomita is very much in to quality and a man with great visions and ambitions.
The story goes back to when I was visiting a cooperative for a cup tasting of their coffees from Huila, Colombia last November. Mr. Alvaro Diaz who had heard about some forreigners visiting the cooperative, wanted us to taste his coffee too, so he got on his motorbike and drove for 3 hours in order to get some feedback from us on his coffee. When he arrived we were just about to pour the water over the coffee we were tasting so he came a bit late. We felt a bit sorry for him not only because he came late but also because his coffee was still in parchment (not roasted). We decided to wait for the guys in the tasting lab so they could roast his coffee. 20 minutes later we could finally taste his coffee against the other cofees from that area.

Alvaro Diaz cupping his great La Lomita coffee at the cooperative cupping lab.
After tasting the coffees we were all amazed by the quality of the coffee that Mr. Diaz had given us a sample of. The coffee was extremely mature, soft, sweet, crisp and had a lovely berry and jasmin aroma. In fact we all thought it was one of the best coffees on the table.
We decided to pay his farm a visit later on that afternoon to see what he was doing to his coffee in order to get it to taste that good.
The farm was beautiful and Mr. Diaz was doing a lot of good work. He was very focused on sustainable growing principles. The wet mill he had on the farm was so clean we could eat from it and he was even picking out defects from parchment before he delivered his coffee to the dry mill. I am posting some pictures to give you an idea of the farm.
While we were at the farm Mr.Diaz asked if we would like to buy the coffee he had drying on the patio at that moment. We explained to him that we needed to get a sample of he coffee sendt to Norway and taste it at under familiar surroundings before we could answer his request. The reason for this is that it is very easy to get emotionally affected by the great people behind the coffee, and this will of course affect the taste of the coffee too. Therefore we always blind taste the coffee at home with Norwegian water, before we decide what to buy.
We agreed that he would hold the coffee for 14 days in order to give us time to go back to Norway to taste the coffee. (This meant no income for Mr. Diaz for 14 days, which is hard when you live on a hand to mouth basis.)
We got to Norway but did not get to taste the coffee until after 15 days. The coffee was still great, so we immediately made a call to our exporter in Colombia in order to purchase the La Lomita Coffee. When our exporter called Mr. Diaz, he was allready on his way to sell the coffee to the FNC, which would have given him USD 1,50 per pound. When he heard from us, he immediately turned his car arround and drove straight back to celebrate. We finally agreed on a price of USD 1,90 per pound for twenty 70 kilo bags.
Next step is to try to get Mr. Diaz to commit to a contract where we invest a little bit in the local school and some processing equipment in order to try to improve the quality of the La Lomita coffee for the next years and also in order to improve the lives of the people behind the coffee. What could we get back for doing so? A lot of knowledge and an amazing coffee!
Here is some facts about the coffee and Finca La Lomita:
Prodcer: Mr. Alvaro Diaz
Harvested: November / December 2007
Origin: El Socorro, El Pital, Huila, Colombia.
Growing conditions: 1650 – 1750 m.above sea level. Restricted use of some banana palm trees for shade. Average air temperature 20°C.
Size of he plantation: 10 hectar whereas 7,5 h. for growing coffee. Of the 7,5 hectares used for coffee, Mr. Diaz is intercropping by growing beans and various vegetables for his family.
Coffee variety: Caturra
Processing: Alvaro Diaz is picking his coffee togeher with his family and some hired freelance pickers. The Coffee cherries are pulped on his farm every night after picking. The pulper uses very little water in order not to pollute the sorrounding environment. In addition, the water used for processing the coffee will go through a buffer where it is filtrated by nature before the water is let out to the surroundings. The left over pulp from the cherries are used as compost.
Mr. Alvaro Diaz with his wife and kids.
After pulping, the parchment beans are fermented in water tanks for 18 to 30 hours depending on the temperature. After fermentation, the beans are dried on african suspended beds which is covered by transparent plastic in order o protect the beans from rain. The beds are divided in to small boxes in order for the workers to take them out 1 by 1 so hat they can sort out the defects from the beans. After drying, the parchment beans are transported to the local cooperative where he parchment is removed, the beans are sorted and defects are picked out. Then the coffee is packed in jute sacs before they get shipped to Norway.
Since the coffee is not always vacuumpacked in origin, we are currently experimenting with vacuum packing of the newly arrived coffee in order to keep it fresh for longer.
So far the experiments seem to work well, so in the future it looks like we will be vacuum packing all of our coffees.
Coffee does not only have a short shelf life after roasting. It looks like the green coffee will only stay fresh for 2 to 8 months in jute sacs and possibly up to a year in vacuum bags.
Taste profile:
Aroma: Intense aromas of red berries, spices and jasmine.
Acidity: Mature and sweet acidity like in fresh red berries.
Mouthfeel: Rich and soft at the same time. Juicy sweetness and oily texture.
Flavour: A complex coffee with some delicate jasmine notes. Intense notes of red berries. Mild but long aftertaste of spices like cloves and cinnamon.
The La Lomita coffee is allready available for purchase in our store and will probably be in stock until this autumn.
Mr. Alvaro Diaz o the right. We are sitting on one of his drying patios. (my t-shirt is courtesy of M’lissa)
Drying beds on Finca La Lomita.

Picking out defected beans.

Fermentation tanks.

Intercropping at the farm.