Finca Hebron, Colombia
In the quest for the perfect coffee bean, we found ourselves along the south-western shores of the Rio Magdalena, an ancient symbolic commercial link between the Colombian coast and the capital, Bogotà.
In the Huila region, surrounded by Colima, Cauca and Narino, as some would say, there pervades a seductiveness brought by a "sense of heading into a land where the spirit of Garcìa Marquez's magical One Hundred Years of Solitude mingled with that of Conrad's Heart of Darkness".
COLOMBIAN COFFEE
The quality of Huila's coffee has been persistently the best in Colombia over the best ten years. Southern Colombia is in fact a region of small land-holders with an average of about 3 hectares of land (5000 trees per hectare) each, meaning that every coffee tasted is, by definition, a limited edition.
Colombian coffee is peculiar for a series of particular reasons: Huila is where the three cordilleras (or mountain ranges) merge. Crops are harvested from April through to June and from October to December. Coffee is grown under old, huge cotton-silk shade trees called Ceibas, at elevated altitude. Ripe cherries-like beans are hand-picked, mostly by women of the region, thereby our second quality coffee, the Womens' Coffee Project. Coffee is then wet processed using traditional fermentation, washed with pure mountain water from the rios, and sun-dried on patios.
FINCA HEBRON - CUP OF EXCELLENCE
It is in sunny La Esperanza, at no less than 1541m asl, that Finca Hebron's Jair Borda and his farmers cultivate what we have found to be some of the best coffee ever tasted: our Colombian winner of 2016 Cup of Excellence, 100% washed and preserved in cartons to maintain its exceptional quality.
Cup of Excellence is the most prestigious competition and award for high quality coffees. The level of scrutiny that Cup of Excellence coffees undergo is unmatched anywhere in the specialty coffee industry. Each year, thousands of coffees are submitted for consideration, with winning coffees sold in global online auctions at premium prices, with the vast majority of auction proceeds going to the farmers.
The competition is rigorous, with cupping evaluations conducted over a three-week process by industry experts: first by a National Jury of about a dozen qualified jurors from the origin country, and then by an International Jury, comprised of approximately 20-25 experienced jurors from around the world. A competition with 300 entries yields an average of 9,000 analyzed cups, with each "Top 10" coffee being cupped at least 120 times.
The Cup of Excellence competition has pioneered integrity and transparency in the coffee industry, ensuring the value of winning coffees. Each sample entering the competition process is assigned a number known only to the auditor for each competition, and each jury member cups the coffee blind. In addition, each lot is documented through the entire process so that winning coffees are traceable to the farm and exact micro-lot.
In this context, our Finca Hebron Cup of Excellence (COE) Coffee has been 2015 Colombian Winner as the best specialty coffee.