Key origin info:

Producer: Wilson Culma
Region: Tolima, Colombia
Altitude: Around 1700 masl

Varietal: Pink Bourbon
Process: Fully washed and dried in parabolic solar dryer

Exporter: Siruma Coffee | Importer: Falcon Speciality

Cup profile: Juicy body, stewed rhubarb & maple syrup

Length of partnership: 1st time purchase 2024

More about Wilson and his coffee:

Wilson is a driven young coffee grower from the Ortega municipality in Tolima. Coffee cultivation runs in his family and as he says he ‘inherited the work of a coffee producer’. Around 9 years ago him and his wife purchased their farm Miralindo which is where this exceptional coffee comes from. The farm spreads over around 4 hectares of land, 1 of which is planted with coffee and the rest being a forest. Wilson is now also one of the leading member of the CAFÉ AGRARIO association. He is keen to be at the forefront of new processing methods, eager to to continue learning and improving the quality of coffee. This beautiful coffee is indeed a testament to Wilson’s dedication and delivers a stunning cup!

Wilson’s processing and drying method:
During harvest, cherry picking passes are made every 18 days, and pickers are taught to select only ripe cherries for picking. Once harvested, cherries are floated in clean water to remove underripes. Following this, good quality cherries are let oxidise over 14 hours. Subsequently, they are de-pulped coffee and fermented with a small amount of water for 48 hours. The coffee is then washed twice before drying first in direct sunlight in pieces of cloth for 24 hours, and then in parabolic solar dryers for around 15-20 days or until target moisture is achieved.

About Cafe Agrario Association:

Wilson is a member of the Cafe Agrario association and currently works as the treasurer as well as as part of team dealing with sales.
The association was initially set up with a political purpose and a leader with roots in the guerrilla warfare/conflict that Tolima was known for in previous years. As such, the association didn’t have any intentions to look for commercial activities or seek help from the government or other entities that work to help growers improve coffee yields and/or quality. Initially this did not pose any problems for its members, but as time passed by and more associations started to form in the region Cafe Agrario’s member understood such associations were built to benefit their members by assessing these kinds of help.

After 6 years Cafe Agrario changed its leader and its course and started to receive help from entities from NGOs. The progress of the association and the coffee growers regarding quality and quantity was huge. As a consequence, the leader sought to increase sales exponentially and started to sell the members’ coffee on credit. Unfortunately, sales were made to companies that were were insolvent and couldn’t make their payments which resulted in the coffee growers’ not receiving their payments for coffee they had delivered.

Even though all the 35 families that are part of this association suffered hardship as a consequences of these failed sales, the growers continue to produce coffee - striving to find new ways to add value to their product. They have pivoted to specialty coffee, looking to increase their income by producing better quality coffee. And though there is certainly potential for high quality production, there is need to improve knowledge and knowhow of the processes needed to produce coffee exportable within the speciality market. And this is where Siruma can help. Not only by providing support through their sustainability and agronomy team but also by purchasing their coffee and being their direct link to the said quality focused market.

The association has now been working with Siruma for 2.5 years and their progress has been significant, where both the coffee quality and the logistical and organisational skills of the group have seen incredible development. Furthermore, the association’s insufficient infrastructure and knowledge on quality analysis of their coffees meant that they weren’t fully aware of the value of their product and accepted base prices from their buyers even though when appropriately assessed their coffee had the potential to benefit from a much higher price within the marketplace. With Siruma's help they now have the capacity to do the proper physical analysis of their coffee and now know the different varieties their farms have in order to process separately and sell sought after single variety lots.