Colombia, El Tambo

Colombia, El Tambo

Producer: Women ASMUCAFE

Region: El Tambo, Cauca

Process: Washed

Varietals: Castillo and Colombia

Flavour Notes: Sweet with winey acidity, rich cocoa, and cooked fruit flavours.

ASMUCAFE stands for Asociación de Mujeres Agropecuarias de Uribe, an organization of women farmers and landowners in El Tambo, a municipality within Cauca. The women's mission as an association is to improve their families' quality of life through coffee farming and to contribute positively to their community by working together and sharing resources, knowledge, and support. "Our work is determined by our values such as responsibility, honesty, commitment, respect, solidarity, and competitiveness," they say. A special price premium is added to this coffee which is used towards projects aimed at female empowerment in the association. 

The coffee, all of which is of Castillo or Colombia variety, is picked as purple (Castillo) or bright red (Colombia) cherry, and undergoes a somewhat unusual "double" fermentation process, as the women describe it: First, the cherries are left in the loading hoppers for 14 hours, then they are depulped in the afternoons and evening hours and placed into traditional open fermentation tanks for another 10 hours. Then they are washed three to four times before being dried either in parabolic dryers or in the sun for 8–12 days