Giraldo is a fully traceable coffee sourced from our importing friends at Coffee Quest and comprised of lots from approximately 50 producers in Giraldo, Antioquia, Colombia. This community lot is carefully constructed, with every single small lot individually cupped various times before being included within the main lot. In addition to cup quality, each coffee must meet strict physical requirements, including our guidelines for moisture content and water activity. The first time a lot is cupped is when the producer brings a sample to our buying station. Upon approval, the producer will then bring the lot down to the warehouse where it will be cupped again, taking a sample from each sack to ensure consistency. Upon final approval, the parchment coffee is packed in grain-pro and remains untouched until the entire lot is milled.
This lot represents the hard work of dedicated producers who work with us because they believe in our model and transparency and appreciate the fact that we buy across all ranges of qualities that they produce in a harvest. In addition to simply paying fair prices, we offer feedback on every-single-lot cupped (whether purchased or not) and as we are able to purchase across all ranges of quality, we can confidently ask producers to make adjustments in their processing, while reducing their concern over price volatility. This coffee contributes to an important part of the supply because these are very well processed coffees that might not hit "single-farm micro-lot" quality, but nonetheless are beautiful coffees that deserve fair payments. The producers who contributed to this lot grow Caturra, Colombia, and Castillo, with farms sitting at a range of elevations between 1,700 and 2,200 meters. We are in our 4th year working with these producers and we have tons of exciting plans lined up for the future!
Antioquia is the 2nd largest producer of coffee in Colombia, next to Huila, but many would never know it as it doesn’t have the same fame as other regions such as Huila, Nariño or Cauca. The reason is because it is primarily comprised of large-scale farmers who are focused more on volumes than on quality. However, there are a few regions within the state where small holders produce coffees that can easily compete on the cupping table, next to any other region in Colombia: Giraldo is one of them! We started working with the producers of Giraldo because we believed in these producers, feel they have been underserved, and wanted to show the world that there is coffee from Colombia outside of the famed regions. This has not been an easy journey for us nor the producers as our ask is very different than the current buyers in town; we want to pay more, but in order to do so, we need them to make some adjustments in their post-harvest practices. However, into the 4th year, we are seeing larger volumes and improved quality; we really feel we have reached a turning point and earned their trust. What is also very interesting about this region is how high their baseline quality of coffee is: the State of Antioquia ran a Specialty Coffee program for 4 years to help promote the region and every single year, coffees from Giraldo were in the Top 10, including a producer from the region winning it one of the years. In addition, we also ran our first local contest this year, called Antioquia Magico and the 1st place from the entire contest, is from Giraldo!
In the past 4 years, we had our purchase point in the town, at the bottom of the mountain. However, this year, we decided to work even closer to the farmers and setup our lab and purchase point in the “vereda” or “neighborhood” on the mountain where the farmers live. Being this close has allowed us to evaluate their coffees almost in real time, improve logistics and increase volumes with the farmers in this region. Our cupper/buyer, Sirley, is from this neighborhood and represents us in front of all the producers we work with.
We decided to name the lot Giraldo, to give homage to the town where these coffees were produced.
