El Triunfo, an example of good collaboration
People
Close to Santa Maria, you can find the municipality of Palermo, where the Finca El Triunfo is located. This farm is run by Audon Solano and sits at an altitude of approximately 1,800 m.a.s.l. Audun Solano is a great example of how our local partnerships and projects around Santa Maria are attracting producers from nearby municipalities.
Finca El Triunfo has a total area of 26 hectares, with roughly 3 hectares of coffee plants. Around 4,000 of the coffee trees planted on the farm are of the Caturra variety and a further 10,000 are of the Colombia variety. Audon Solano also grows banana and tangelo trees, a fruit that could certainly match the flavour of his coffee!
Our first introduction was from another coffee grower from Palermo. This is now our 4th year working with Audon (5th year in Santa Maria) and we are eager to continue this collaboration with him. Santa Maria and Palermo are neighbouring towns with the same calibre of growers and we are pleased to see that each harvest is just as consistent as the last one.
Product
This lot consists of both varieties: Caturra and Colombia, as they are intertwined within the lots. The secret of Audon’s coffee lies in his technique. His recipe includes 24/36 hours of fermentation. This means that the coffee is first fermented in cherry for 24 hours and then de-pulped and fermented in the tank for an additional 36 hours. Upon washing, the coffee is laid out to dry in a greenhouse-style structure, for approximately 12-18 days depending on the climate conditions.
Price
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In the Santa Maria Station, we cup all the available samples handed in by the local community of farmers. A lot of work … But it allows us to pay the farmer relative to the actual quality of their coffee. For our 82 & 83 scoring lots, we pay a premium on top of the local C-market-related price. All 84+ coffees have fixed prices that have a premium of 20-80% higher.
Planet
Audun, by delivering his coffee at Santa Maria Station, where we operate together with Asociación La Victoria, has the chance to receive support with training, education, farm assistance, crop improvement and of course, access to finance.
The environment is not excluded from our agenda, rather it is at its core. Together with local and international partners, The Coffee Quest Colombia is working on environmental improvements in the area just next to the Parque Nacional del Nevado De Huila, home to many coffee farmers.
The Coffee Quest will be actively keeping track of developments in Santa Maria, with the intention of stimulating their efforts in upcoming years. The lab inside the buying station is used for workshops focused on quality and improving consistency. Many producers have experienced their first ‘cupping’, sometimes even tasting their own coffee for the first time. A great motivation to put in the effort to develop better production methods. Santa Maria has a troubled past, hidden from the world, but right now farmers have the opportunity to continue improving and even think long-term.
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