Colombia Mile High Medium

Cupping Notes: Milk Chocolate, with hints of Cherry and slight Sweet Lemon

S.H.G  - Strictly High Grown        

 Since the days of “Juan Valdez”, Colombia has been well known for some of the most flavorful coffee in the world. Unfortunately, often times the crop that “Juan” brought to our markets was not the best Colombian coffee.

          Located high in the mountains between Cali, Medellin, and Bogata, is the community of Huila, which is well known for premium coffee cultivation. Small farms in this “coffee axis” supply us with an extraordinary Colombian coffee from Algeciras, a cooperative owned by two brothers who are working with former guerillas warriors who fought for years against the Colombian government but now have turned their energies toward coffee production. We like supporting such a project. Its totally 'Humanic".

We are fortunate to have access to these small farms through our friend Camilo Yubank of Royal Coffee, who has established friendships with many farmers, and provided them with access to the North American market with fair prices. When he told me the story of this cooperative in Algeciras, and the quality of the coffee, we decided to purchase as much as we can.

We roast this Huila Algeciras coffee into the second crack, where the brown color on the beans is consistent, with no specks of oil.

Photo: When we began our primary school project in the refugee villages on the Honduran side of the Coco River, the conditions were very primitive. We had no chairs or desks. We bought sheets of plywood and blackboard paint and made chalkboards for each of our schools. I purchased many boxes of chalk and flew them out from La Ceiba to Miskitia in our 1953 Piper Pacer- heavy cases of chalk.

We did have the very best curriculums available in Central America written by one of the most respected educators in the region- Professor Victoria Palacios and her “Colección Catrachitos”. Victoria came out to Auka twice a year to train our group of 20 teachers. She really made it possible to educate our children.

In this photo Damacio Allen is teaching first grade in Sawa. The kids are attentive, and Damacio was a good teacher who unfortunately was snake bitten one day while bathing in the river by a fer-de-lance, a very deadly snake. His wife took over his class and continues teaching in Sawa to this day.