Carmen de la Argentina
High above the mountains of La Argentina (Huila), nestled in verdant and water-soaked mountains, is a tightly-knit coffee-farming community run mainly by women. As occurs in many towns across Colombia, the men and youth leave home for the city in search of job opportunities, leaving women to care for the children, elderly parents and the farm. This community lot honors three women and families who have overcome so much to produce specialty coffee today.
For years the townspeople of La Argentina were caught in the crossfire of the armed conflict and now face a new threat in climate change. Heavy rains falling relentlessly on the steep clay-rich soil have created massive mudslides, cutting communities off for months, destroying coffee crops, and risking farmers’ livelihoods. The farmers have undergone painstaking work on the farms to salvage what was left and to replant trees to mitigate future landslides on the steep slopes of Carmen de la Argentina.
The farmers produced the coffee by innovating traditional processing methods. They picked each bean by hand to select the best coffee cherries. Then the cherries were fermented for 12 hours before they were de-pulped. The mucilage was then fermented for 48 hours and dried slowly for 28 days. The process developed an elegant and refined profile found in the mountains where it was grown.
Department: Huila
Farm: Various
Varietals: Castillo, Colombia, Caturra and Tabi
Altitude: 1750 - 1950 MASL