We are really proud to present you this coffee. Our established close relationship with the Canal family of Finca La Lomita in Colombia, Valle del Cauca is best we can do when working directly with the producers.

Direct traded means that none of the intermediate trading parties are involved in the process of purchasing coffee. It also means that all the money for the green coffee goes directly to the producer, which means he physically gets paid better price than if we bought the same coffee through intermediaries. What is more, we can directly communicate with the producer and exchange the experience and information about their product and its quality. This is beneficial mutually since it can help to avoid mistakes in production or even impact the increase of quality (which again goes back to the price incentives).

La Lomita is located in the east face of the western branch of the Colombian Andes, in the region known as Farallones de Cali (Lat. N 03 - 25' - 32", Long. W 76 - 35' -49"). Our cafetos are planted facing east at an altitude between 1,600 and 1,700 m.a.s.l. It's an estate consisting of 6.6 ha of productive land and 4.5 ha of protected forest. Today they have approximately 37,000 plants at different stages of production, and 7,000 new plants were planted at the end of last year.

Their trees belong to the variety Castillo El Tambo. This variety is developed by Cenicafe (Colombian Centre for Coffee Research) and obtained from a cross between the Caturra and Timor Hybrid varieties. Castillo is well-known for its resistance to rust, high adaptability and good-cup attributes.

Everyone working in La Lomita has been living there for decades. They have permanent contracts, receive full legal benefits, social security cover, as well as performance bonuses. Their current salaries are 38% over the Colombian legal minimum wage. Additionally, they provide free accommodation and access to public services for them and their families. During harvest time their pickers are paid 10% over the average rate, and bonuses are awarded based on quality of picked beans.

To learn more about various practices La Lomita has established within the years head to their website.

La Lomita has been also featured in such well know coffee magazines like Perfect Daily Grind and London's Best Coffee.

Recommendations: we recommend start brewing our coffees not earlier than 7-10 days after roast date to get best flavours out of the beans. Freshly roasted coffee contains noticeable amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas. Technically it is a barrier that doesn’t allow getting all potential flavours into your cup when brewing too fresh coffee. And that is a potential culprit that ruins your favourite drink sensory experience – coffee might taste under-extracted, hence sour, flat, papery, cellulose-like, and fresh wood-like. When brewing, noticeably intense foaming and bubbling is a sign of coffee being very fresh. Likewise, the freshness of the flavours can’t stay for too long as well. We encourage consumption of our coffees within a period of 9 weeks after roast date, although you can enjoy the coffee for up to 6 months if stored appropriately.

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