We'd like to introduce you to one of our favourite coffees, produced by Hernan Montano at Finca Los Laureles in Huila, Colombia.
We can't tell you everything about a coffee's journey here, that would be impossible in one post. What we do hope to communicate is the idea that coffee passes through many steps along what we call a value-chain. We believe the most important person here is the farmer, but we can't forget that every coffee you buy is the result of a great logistical and bureaucratic journey. Not all parts of the coffee journey are glamorous, but we're proud to work with partners who truly care about people's livelihoods and are changing the industry for the better.
Here we talk a little about Finca Los Laureles, the processing of milling and exporting, shipping & warehousing, and finally how we roast and brew this coffee.
Please note that this example isn’t transferable to every coffee: many producing countries have different systems for trading parchment and green coffee and the cost of production for farmers varies widely between different years, countries, and even regions. For this reason, we have kept all numbers in local currencies and in local units of measurement. You’re welcome to convert these currencies for your understanding, but we wanted to show local realities (like farmer income or costs of production) in local terms. You’ll see figures in EUR/kg, $/lb , USC/lb and Colombian Pesos per carga.
Likewise, the roast profiles here aren't perfect Scott-Rao approved curves. We want to show you that coffee roasting is always a process of mistakes, learning and refinement.
Our gratitude goes out to the team at Azahar for their generous help and willingness to share information, to Olam for their transparency and to 19grams for letting us share a container + Anthony's help with introductions and roasting advice.
