August 4-8, 2025
August 4
Travel day to Bogotá from Philadelphia. Dinner with Natalia Mejia (Specialty Coffee Manager) and Lorena López (Sustainability Director) for Mastercol, both based out of Bogotá. Natalia is Rival’s direct contact with Mastercol and would be taking us around Colombia for the week. Mastercol’s Alma Negra blend is what we use for several different purposes in our lineup and the producers we will visit are contributors to that blend.
August 5
Morning coffee visit to Tropicália Coffee Roasters in Bogotá. Morning cupping with Natalia and the Mastercol team at their office. The cupping was 13 coffees from different regions of Colombia that was used as a showcase for the variety of quality, processing and regional levels. From there we headed to the El Dorado airport in Bogotá for a short flight to Pitalito in the Huila Department of southern Colombia.
We were picked up at the airport by Wbeimar Lasso of Terra Coffee. Pitalito is a town built around coffee and serves as a point of arrival and departure for coffee and buyers. Mr. Lasso, along with his wife Juliana Guevara, founded Terra as a way to focus on training and education for small holder producers to promote quality and sustainability and serves as a bridge between the producers and Mastercol. Terra works with dozens of producers and has a warehouse in Pitalito that serves as a collection and distribution point for the coffees.
After a quick lunch, we headed into the mountains for our first producer visit at Finca La Coloya with Romario Alexis Tapia and his family (wife Jheny and daughters Maite and Sara).
Originally from the Department of Putumayo, Romario started working at 12 but had to leave the area at 17 due to the civil war there and moved to Pitalito with nothing. Romario started working and met Jheny and saved up enough money to buy their farm.
The 3.7 hectare farm consists of Caturra, Bourbon, Castillo and papaya varietals and employs 15 seasonal workers throughout the year. The beauty of Colombian coffee production is that there is a year round production as the coffee trees ripen at various times throughout the year. The Tapia’s are constantly working to improve their coffee production and investing in the people and process is consistent. To that end, they purchased a mechanical coffee dryer which increases the consistency of the coffee and speeds up the drying process for coffee. Something that would ordinarily take 6-7 days on raised beds can now be achieved in 14-16 hours. The farm will produce roughly 100-110, 70kg bags of green coffee per year, a number he hopes to increase over time.
The family works together and after sharing a coffee and some roasted plantains, we were able to chat about their challenges and aspirations for the future (the girls hope to learn English and eventually to work in coffee)! The family’s hard work is paying off as their cup quality is improving considerably over the time that they have owned the farm. They hope to improve their milling operations in the next year by working on their facilities to increase the quality and volume.
After walking the farm, sharing some snacks and conversation, it was back to Pitalito for some much needed sleep.
August 6
An early morning and back into the truck for some more producer visits! A few hours up into the mountains on a rainy day will open one’s eyes pretty quickly to the struggles of those living in the mountains. Through climate change, the areas that would normally have a predictable weather cycle are experiencing unpredictability in the wet and dry seasons. For example, it has been raining excessively in some of the growing regions where reliable weather patterns of rain that would normally last for one month are now lasting for three months (and counting).
These excessive rains are producing mudslides and damaging harvest as the coffee cherries become susceptible to rot from not having enough time to dry out. A mudslide in June shut down the only road from the top of the mountain into the closest town for three weeks, leaving those at the top of the mountain to fend for themselves as best as they could.
The next producer to visit is Hernan Calderon at Finca Bilbao. This 7 hectare farm is a stunning example of meticulous production and care. Along with his wife, Yenny, and two kids, Jeronimo and Zoe, Don Hernan purchased his farm 16 years ago and has continuously sought to improve the farm through diversifying varietals, improving the wet mill, planting more shade crops (eucalyptus, plantains) and paying a rate above the norm for experienced pickers, thereby ensuring consistency and quality.
Finca Bilbao has five different varietals (Pacamara, Colombian, Castillo, Geisha, and Bourbon) with 5 of the 7 hectares under cultivation with the additional two expected to be in production next year to produce a total of 200 bags of green coffee per year.
During the harvest they will employ 18-20 people to work on the farm. Finca Bilbao uses a natural yeast for fermentation that has been in use for three generations of their family! The green coffee will be hulled and sealed in barrels with a small amount of the yeast for 6-8 days and then the coffee undergoes a small washing process before drying.
While the farm is only 1200 MASL, the property backs up to the Amazonas natural reserve which has its own microclimate that influences the climate and provides a lot of the same benefits that a higher altitude farm would receive as a result (cooler temperatures, sufficient precipitation).
After a lunch with the family that couldn’t be beat, we toured the farm to see the trees and meet some of the coffee pickers. Don Hernan stated that climate change is his biggest concern with too much rain in the past few years. They are planting more trees to help with the soil diversity and to provide more habitat for birds and other animals (sometimes leaving fruit on the trees to attract the birds). In recent years, it has been increasingly more difficult to find pickers that are trained (as it takes at least three years to train someone properly) as most of the young adults in the area head to the cities to find jobs and opportunities, no longer wishing to stay in the rural farming communities.
Late in the afternoon, we left Finca Bilbao and headed to Finca Buenos Aires to meet with Victor Bermudez-Motta. Victor is a fourth generation coffee producer and is working on the farm that his parents and grandparents lived and grew up on. Victor’s uncle, Oscar, had spent decades in the US and has returned to the family estate to establish a community support foundation. Finca Buenos Aires serves as a church in the community that also hosts visitors to the farm as well as providing English lessons, art classes and dancing instruction to local children - a truly remarkable achievement. Victor went to college for law and practiced in Bogotá before returning to the farm during the pandemic to switch careers and focus on coffee production. Victor told us “I’d never go back to live and work in Bogotá. I love what I do,” and the coffees we would taste the next day would give credence to that statement.
August 7
Starting our last day in Pitalito, we headed early to the Terra Coffee offices and lab. We were able to cup 36 different offerings as well as several from Wbeimar and Juliana’s farm (Finca La Terraza). The cupping showed the diversity of the coffees coming from Huila and it was a real pleasure getting to cup with Victor from Finca Buenos Aires as well as with Wbeimar and Juliana the Terra Coffees team. It was also clear the care and dedication that Wbeimar and his team have for the farmers in the area. He spends most days on the road visiting farms and farmers, talking to people, giving advice and guidance. The reverence that these people have for Mr. Lasso was incredible to watch and we feel very fortunate to have been able to spend several days with him in and around his home.
After lunch we headed to the airport in Pitalito for the return flight to Bogotá where we saw a little bit of the city and prepared for an early morning flight the next day.
Every time we are lucky enough to travel to origin to meet with producers I am reminded of my good fortune of working in coffee. People at origin are so happy to see you making the effort to come see what they do and the investment in time to be curious to understand what they are working with. It’s a challenging career being a farmer in these rural communities, one that is filled with constant ups and downs and uncertainties. These producers work so hard, and care about their production so much, that visiting makes a significant impact on them and on ourselves. There is a strong sense of community and family that you can feel while walking through the farms, sharing meals and drinking coffee as people invite you into their homes and share these things and their experiences. We are very humbled by this trip and hope for many more to come!
- Damien Pileggi & Chris Miller
