Green Colombian Los Naranjos coffee beans

Green Colombian Los Naranjos coffee beans as washed coffee source direct from Caravela.

Colombia

Colombia is a country with many distinct coffee regions. The bulk of Colombian coffee is grown north of the Andes, where the country is flatter. Large coffee estates are typical in this region. Coffees from these estates are sold as Colombia Supermo and excelso. Rather than being a quality grade, these are size grades.

Further south is the Colombian Andes. The Madeline river winds between the mountains and the complexity of the coffee increases. The size of the farms or “fincas” decreases to an average of 3 Hectares.

In this region, coffee has a wide variety of flavours and depth. Many coffee lovers compare this range of complexity to only one other origin in the world, namely Ethiopia.

Caravela

In 2000 Alessandro and Giancarlo took a more in-depth interest in specialty grade coffee, specifically in their mother country Colombia. Believing quality could be sorted out and identified, they returned to Colombia, Where they slowly built a coffee company that rewarded coffee farmers for quality product. Working with farmers, they showed them how to produce better quality coffee through updating production, picking and processing methods.

Caravela is a result of this investment today. Now they can offer great coffee to roasters interested in quality, direct. Also in place are programs to spread the knowledge from Colombia into their neighbours in South America, and Central America.

Green Colombian Los Naranjos coffee beans

Near San Augustin is a collection of coffee farmers. In 2001, some of these farmers got together, intending to share resources and skills to improve their coffee and try to gain access to the specialty coffee market. They formed an association called La Asociación Los Naranjos de San Augustin. Today the association comprises about 50 farmers with an average farm size of about three hectares.

Working with Caravela, they have concentrated on the little things that make a difference in ensuring coffee quality is improved. Many of these farmers often grow orange trees on their farms, and perhaps this is why the orange citrus is so apparent in the coffees from this area.

Caravela identify coffees from this region that have the distinct orange flavour characteristics and group them into lots. These lots are called Los Naranjos™. The coffee became famous when it beat Esmeralda in the a best of the world competition in 2009. We started offering it the same year. Since then, we have offered this coffee, and it has developed a loyal following.

Green Colombian Los Naranjos coffee beans: