Each month we select a coffee to share with our Roasters Choice subscribers; this November we’ve been roasting La Sierra from Cundinimarca Colombia. The coffee is a community lot from the Viani smallholders - a collective of growers we’ve been buying coffee from since 2019.
What is a ‘community lot’ ?
Our coffees are traceable down to farm level, but sometimes the quantity an individual farm produces means the farmer isn’t able to bring that coffee to the speciality market - the small volume means it’s just not practical.
A community lot allows a group of smaller farms to share the quality of their coffees by collaborating with their neighbours to produce a community lot that reflects the unique character of the region or locality where they’re farming. La Sierra is a great example of a community lot - a blend of coffee that’s been sourced from several producers.
La Sierra has helped some of these producers to reach the speciality market for the first time, understand what’s involved and see how it can benefit them. Community lots can offer great value and showcase the work of growers that may not always get the attention they deserve. They can also allow a farmer to experiment with improved methods and processes on a smaller scale - removing some of the risk and giving them the opportunity to see if it makes commercial sense for them.
Done properly these coffees can deliver real quality in the cup - La Sierra is a great example.
La Sierra, Cundinimarca
In May this year I was invited to visit the town of La Sierra to meet the group of farmers we’re buying from here and see how they work together. With the coffee landed and here at the roastery it’s a good time to take a closer look at where our latest Colombian coffee was sourced from.
La Sierra itself is a small settlement; just a few hours drive from Colombia’s capital city, Bogota. Thursday night’s arrival into Bogota airport is followed by a 5 AM start to try and avoid the worst of the capital’s infamous traffic. By 7:30 we’re up in the highlands of Cundinimarca, arriving into La Sierra for 9:00 - it’s a hive of activity.
In La Sierra we connect with this community of growers, they're working with our partners in the region, Racafe. The rendezvous is at a ‘collection centre’ on the outskirts of the town. The sign above the door reads Compra de Cafe Verde y Seco - Purchase of Green and Dry Coffee.
The majority of the farmers contributing to La Sierra have small farms, between 2 and 10 hectares in size. As well as receiving premiums for quality the farmers can access environmental, social and economic support through Racafe’s Crecer Project - a grass-roots sustainability program that helps farmers become more sustainable; both environmentally and economically.
The collection centre in La Sierra is run by Joseel Castiblanco - Joseel’s been working in this coffee community for over 20 years. Over the course of the day we visit some of the farms contributing to La Sierra.
We start at El Respaldo, where we meet with producer Julio Alphonso and his wife Jasmine. Their farm is 2 hectares in size, they’re growing coffee and bananas.
A short distance away is Jose Guillermo’s farm, Villa Sandra. Jose is farming on just one-hectare of land. As well as growing coffee Jose is a beekeeper - there are rows of beehives amongst the avocado and orange trees.
The final farm we visited in the locality was La Joya, owned and run by Jose. This farm is the biggest of the three - around 14 hectares dedicated to coffee.
I’m left with the sense that the farmers contributing to this ‘community lot’ are greater and stronger working together. Sharing experiences, helping each other out to deal with labour shortages and generally pooling resources - a community coffee in more ways than one.
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