San Gregorio - Colombia

The town of San Gregorio lies in the southwest of Colombia’s Antioquia department – one of the country’s most well-known coffee growing regions. Located in the Municipality of Ciudad Bolivár, San Gregorio is smaller than the municipal capital but like it lies nestled in the verdant green hills that characterise the area.

The producers who have contributed to this lot hail from the region and own farms that lie in the hills surrounding the town. As should be apparent in the cup, they make the most of their natural surroundings through stringent cultivation and processing practices: they are all committed to making San Gregorio coffee the best that Colombia has to offer.

Marina de Jesus Guerra Agudelo, Jorge Luis Calderon Gil, Prospero Agudelo, Fabio Alonso Guerra & Gonzaga Herrera all come from coffee farming families and are all highly committed to producing better coffee. Their farms are small (most are around 3 hectares, though Jorge Luis’ is larger at 30 hectares), but their love of coffee is huge. They have been working with the Cooperativa de Caficultores de Andes (Cooperandes), a regional cooperative, in order to improve their cultivation and processing practices as they realise that quality coffee is the key to quality of life for their families.

Founded in 1961, Cooperandes receives coffee from more than 11,000 smallholders living in the foothills of Antioquia’s Eastern Colombian Mountain range. Smallholder farmer members within the cooperative’s area of influence benefit from exceptional agro-ecological conditions that are ideal for growing coffee, and Cooperandes has funded multiple innovative initiatives to improve lives and quality of production for their members – including ‘coffee stores’ to facilitate access to crop inputs such as fertiliser and pest controls and an innovative micro-lot programme. Through the cooperative’s technical assistance and support (for instance, an educational program to create opportunities for the youth that they have established in partnership with the University of Antioquia and an extensive scholarship program), Cooperandes is helping producers such as these producers gain more visibility on the international market and helping producers in Antioquia transform their quality of life.

Although the farmers contributing to this lot have slightly different processing practices, all of their lots have been selectively harvested by hand and then pulped and fermented for around 24 hours, depending on the weather at the time. After fermentation, coffee is washed several times using clean, cool water.

After all traces of mucilage are removed, the parchment coffee is delivered to dry on parabolic beds, known locally as marquesinas, or on cement patios. Once the coffee reaches the desired humidity (11-12%) the coffee is bagged and brought to the Cooperandes warehouse to be graded. Each lot is cupped by the expert Cooperandes quality control team, who then determine if the coffee qualifies as a ‘microlot’ to be sold on the specialty market. In this case, the five producers who have contributed to San Gregorio had submitted relatively small lots that were all similar in cup profile and were notable for their high quality. These have been married together to form this ‘San Gregorio’ lot.

Farms & Farmers contributing to this lot:

Finca El Solitario

• Owner: Prospero Agudelo
• Varieties: Colombia & Castillo
• Altitude: 1,830 metres above sea level

Finca El Amañadero

• Owner: Fabio Alonso Guerra
• Varieties: Colombia & Castillo
• Altitude: 1,750 metres above sea level

Finca Las Marias

• Owner: Gonzaga Herrera
• Variety: Colombia

• Altitude: 1,800 metres above sea level

Finca El Cielo

• Owner: Marina de Jesus Guerra Agudelo
• Variety: Caturra & Castillo
• Altitude: 1,810 metres above sea level

Finca El Paraiso

• Owner: Jorge Luis Calderon Gil
• Variety: Caturra & Colombia
• Altitude: 1,800 metres above sea level