COLOMBIA: TOLIMA

Tastes like

Pear Tart

Milk Chocolate

Brown Sugar

Pear tart, milk chocolate, and brown sugar. Fifty-seven farmers. One beautiful cup.

Soft pear tart sweetness up front, milk chocolate depth through the middle, and a warm brown sugar finish that settles in and stays. This is what Tolima produces when the people growing it are organised, certified, and committed to doing it properly.

Association

ASOSPAC

Region

Tolima

Country

Colombia

Variety

Castillo, Caturra, Colombia

Process

Washed

Certified at Origin

Organic & Fairtrade

The coffee

ASOSPAC is a producer association built from scratch in Gaitania Village in Ataco, Tolima, by farmers who decided to take control of what they were growing. Founded in 2017 as a non-profit, the association started as a community project that tried different agricultural directions before landing on coffee. Their results in the field drew in more producers, and the group has since grown to 57 farmers, all certified at origin in organic and fairtrade practices. Those certifications are held by the producers themselves, a deliberate choice to increase prices, raise quality, and earn the kind of recognition that changes things for a farming community over the long term.

Origin

Tolima is the third largest coffee-producing region in Colombia, and one of its most remote. Fully enclosed by the Andean mountains and the Magdalena river basin in west-central Colombia, the region has historically been difficult to access and slow to reach the international specialty market. In recent years that has changed, and the coffees coming out of Tolima have been getting the attention they deserve: nutty, tangy, fruit-forward, and with a creamy body that makes them easy to love. ASOSPAC sits in that emerging wave, and the cup reflects what this region is capable of.

The association

The mission of ASOSPAC is clear: defend the interests of their producers and build fair conditions for the next generation of coffee growers. Each of the 57 members holds organic and fairtrade certification at origin, the result of a collective decision that the path to better prices and better recognition ran through better standards. It is the kind of organisation that forms when farmers stop waiting for the market to come to them and start building something that works on their own terms. Their goal is to keep improving the coffee and to leave behind something worth inheriting.

Process

Washed, in the Colombian tradition. Coffee is picked ripe and depulped the same day, then fermented in open-air tanks for 12 to 36 hours before being washed clean of its mucilage and dried on patios, in parabolic dryers, or mechanically depending on the producer. The result is a clean, transparent cup that lets the pear tart brightness and milk chocolate depth come through without distraction.

Brew it your way

Excellent on filter. Reliable as espresso. On filter at 1:16, the pear tart and brown sugar notes come through with clarity and the milk chocolate gives the cup a satisfying, rounded body. Pull it as espresso at a 1:2 ratio in 28 to 32 seconds for something smooth and sweet that is easy to dial in and hard to stop pulling.