Colombia Origin Trip: Sourcing Speciality Coffee - Day 1

Welcome to Steve's personal blog from his origin trip to Colombia, where he spent 10 days travelling the country sourcing speciality coffee.

His blog covers his thought and feelings throughout and introduces you to some of the most amazing people/organisations that make up the coffee industry.

Day 1 – Sunday 8th May – Travel day

After a pretty hectic morning of trying to organise my stuff for the trip, I finally made it to Sheffield train station, first stop Doncaster, quick change and down to Kings Cross, onto the underground and over to Heathrow T2. Everything ran very smoothly and was at the airport with plenty of time to spare. I met Jacob and in departures we go…

At this time I started to really think about the trip, how was it going to be different to Indonesia, how would I feel about not seeing my little boy for the longest time since he was born, I had a couple of nervous feelings towards safety, I’ve never been to Colombia and some stories are not great, however my main feeling was pure excitement, another opportunity to go to origin, a change to make some new great connections and also maintain our existing relationship with Cencoic, it really was going to be a trip of a lifetime.

The flight was great, nice and easy and the 10 hours 40 flew by, we landed in Bogota, collected our bags and started the wait for the rest of the group.

A couple of hours in the airport, a couple of coffees later the rest of the group arrived. This tour is being hosted by Hernan from Racafe alongside Priscilla and David from DR Wakefield. We also have Roy and Milena from Java Republic and James from Wogan coffee. After quick introductions we were back on a plane and a quick flight up to Medellin. One thing was clear from the quick intro’s, we are all coffee people with a passion for coffee at origin.

We were met at Medellin and off we headed to El Penol. First impressions were incredible, everywhere was so green, so lush, I could tell I would like Colombia. After a quick drive we stopped for breakfast, A local dish of ham and scrambled eggs.

The drive over to El Penol was about an hour, a beautiful trip up and up the mountains, around 1900 meters above sea level. El Penol itself was bigger and more affluent than I thought, It surrounds the wonderful Guatape lake, surprisingly, (to me at least) there was luxury looking properties on the edge of the water, I just wasn’t expecting that.

We stopped at El Penol buying station and met Sonia, she buys wet and dry parchment coffee from around 150 small farms across the area. She then blends this to create the El Penol coffee. We actually tried a single origin Typica that Sonia had roasted on a frying pan, smooth, easy drinking, best coffee of the trip so far. 

After a brief insight into operations we headed to a small local farm and met head farmer, Jesus. We had an incredible tour and insight into a small farm operation. All coffee was picked and processed on site and then taken to Sonia for sale, normally on a Sunday. It was an amazing feeling being back amongst the coffee trees, this is the heart and soul of coffee, this is where it happens, it’s sometimes easy to forget this.

We spent a good hour with Jesus, a typical hard working but friendly Colombian, interestingly, two of the biggest obstacles he faces are cost of fertilizer and getting staff to pick coffee during harvest.

Alongside the many coffee trees, there was also some of the biggest Avocados I have ever seen, incredible.

Moving on from Jesus, we went to visit another farm within El Penol, this one was sitting at 1982 masl. A small farm on the banks of the Guatape, family operated and farmed by 88 years young Julio Garcia. Julio maintains the farm and completes the harvest with just one extra person helping, incredible. Julio was born and raised in a house a stones throw away from the current farm and has never left, I can certainly see why.

This was a beautiful small farm and they were actually going to start the first pick on Monday 16th, Lots of ripe cherries ready to go. Again, similar to Jesus, they would pick and process the cherry to wet or dry parchment, then take to Sonia for sale.

From here we started to head back towards Medellin and towards are overnight accommodation in Bolivar. It was a long drive but felt longer, it is safe to say but I was feeling the effects of all the travel. A quick stop for something to eat in Bolivar and to the hotel, head down and lights out.

Day one complete and what a first day it was, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the trip holds…

Steve Hampshire

Head of Coffee