Colombia - Magdalena

ROAST

• Farm: Magdalena
• Varietal: Caturra, Castillo
• Location: Antioquia
  
• Altitude: 1,400 - 1900 m
• Process: Washed
• Owner: Various Smallholders

Cupping Notes

Apple, toffee, milk chocolate and almonds

More Information

This coffee comes from the biggest farm in Colombia, based around the beautiful area of Salgar in Antioquia. The Green Coffee Company was established in 2017 with the mission to help change the dynamic of Colombian production using innovation, expertise and quality to bring consistent coffees to clients around the world, and therefore better prices for farmers.

The total farm size is now 4000ha, built up by acquiring 40 farms where they are able to implement full control over all aspects of production, from agronomy through to post harvest process and export. GCC have invested heavily in technology,  and have two centralised wet mills which have the capacity to deal with 360 000kg of cherry per day. These wet mills use advanced technology of cherry colour sorters and electronic tracking throughout the process which has helped them reduce the volume of water needed to produce coffee by over 21 million litres.

At GCC there is also a strong focus on the environmental and social conditions that are part of the philosophy of the supply chain. On the farms, they are working actively to protect the watershed by planting over 26,000 non coffee trees on the land. These trees help absorb water, encourage biodiversity, provide useful shade for the crops, and contribute to long-term soil health. They have planted over 2 million coffee trees of Castillo and Colombia on land that used to be used for cattle production, and in the nursery they have completely eliminated the use of plastics.

The farms have over 400 permanent employees who have access to secured regular work as well as having a pension program for the workers. They have an equal opportunity program: 27% of the employees are female and they aim to create more leadership roles for women at the farms. They have also an initiative supporting single mothers into employment in the local community.