Colombian Tolima Tierra - Direct Trade Coffee

We are pleased to announce the introduction of our newest Direct Trade coffee, a Colombian coffee from the region of Tolima. For the rest of this season, we are offering some of the best coffee from Colombia there is. We have been working hard to find a co-operative to work with since judging the Cup of Excellence Competition back in March 2009. Since then our standards for Colombian coffee went through the roof, and needless to say, it has not been easy finding something to meet our new expectations.

This particular lot has prominent aromas of brown sugar, apricot and star anise with a red apple sweetness & acidity. Flavors of toffee and caramel finish notably clean.

Cupping Score: 89.0

This lot is the sum of the work from 44 individual farms, each contributing the equivalent of about 2 and a half bags (about 185kg) of finished coffee. It comes from the very mountainous area in the southern end of Tolima, around Planadas near the border with Huila. Tolima is filled with an ecosystem of numerous rivers, lakes and abundant native forests which is the optimal area for growing coffee.

We have cupped samples of Colombian coffees from every region and have tasted literally 100’s of samples in order to bring you something we can be proud of. Typically Colombians are only sold by bean size. This has very little/nothing to do with the quality of the green coffee, nor the taste in the cup (Supremo = Screen size 17/18 and Exceslo = Screen size 16/17).

Central American coffees are typically sold by the elevation the coffee was grown at: SHB = Strictly High Grown, HB = High Grown, etc. This also has a limited effect to the quality in your cup (however, this does affect quality more than bean size). At Fratello our goal is to find the best quality & most character in a cup we can. This has nothing to do with bean size or elevation.

Through working directly with the farmers of the Flor De Mi Tierra group of coffee growers we are able purchase a blend of green varietal coffees (70% Caturra & 30% Colombia) with have characteristics that I find most appealing in Colombia coffee: big sweetness, smooth full body, essence of fruit, huge fragrance & aroma and a clean and uncharacteristically sweet finish.

We look forward to bringing this coffee in for you & your clients to enjoy.