Many of you have noticed that for almost two years Bailies Coffee Roasters have been pushing to buy more and more coffees directly from the producers. This has been going very well, especially in Colombia, Brazil and Indonesia. Central America has been quite difficult for us in the past and that was the reason for my 3 weeks trip to Honduras and Guatemala. We know many producers and exporters from these countries, but that is not enough for the long term relationship on the level we would like to have. The trip was divided into three weeks, the first of which I spent in Honduras. I visited different farms, co-operatives, dry mills and cupping coffees wherever I could. Honduras is...
The arrival of new coffee beans is creating a lot of excitement in the Bailies roastery. The new coffee is from Colombia and more importantly – it’s a decaf. It comes from a group of farmers in Planadas, Tolima. It’s a small south Colombian region that is locked by West and Central Andes, almost inaccessible due to mountain ranges and unsafe areas in south Huila and partially still controlled by paramilitaries. What makes this coffee growing region unique is that it has some extraordinary conditions for growing coffee. It’s grown in an altitude of around 1600 masl. in a loam and clay soil rich in volcanic ashes. The coffee varietals being grown here are all traditional – Typica, Caturra, Castillo...
Over the last few days (mid-October, 2015) I've been travelling in Colombia. ‘I've met a lot of people, seen a lot of coffee farms’, but the thing I was looking forward to most was meeting our friends at ComepCafe. For those who haven't heard about them so far, that's a cooperative based in Piendamo, Cauca from which we bought our first container of coffee this year. Because we like the quality of the coffee so much, I was really excited to meet them in person and see what exactly is happening there. On Monday I flew from Bogota to Popayan where I met Luz Stella Reyes, the representative of ComepCafe. First of all we visited local dry mill in Popayan...
Jan Komarek, Quality Control specialist at Bailies Coffee is currently visiting Colombia to see producers we work with and witness first hand the care and dedication that goes into our beans from the very beginning. We will be detailing his travels through images over the coming 10 days or so, and below are some of the first he has sent to us.
