This special coffee from the Tolima region of Colombia is full of flavor, bursting with deep red berry and milk chocolate notes. This lot comes from a group of farmers in the town of Planadas within the Tomila region of Colombia, and is processed at a cutting-edge farm called La Roma that features advanced fermentation and processing techniques.
This coffee is fantastic in any brewing method. A French Press will bring out more chocolate and sweet, ripe fruit flavors, while a filter method like drip or pourover will highlight some of the hidden floral and subtle berry notes. Using an Aeropress will give you the best of both worlds, creating a meld of sweet flavors reminiscent of a chocolate-covered strawberry.
The following coffee benchmarks have been collected with the help of our importing partners and farmers. Firelight Coffee uses this information to understand and verify the sustainability of each coffee prior to purchase. All information was freely shared by our importing partners and/or the coffee farmer or producer. Sustainability scores were determined by Firelight Coffee based on an evolving set of internal scoring methods and are subject to change. Click to expand each section below the graph for more details.
| Organic Farming | |
| Is the coffee certified organic? | No |
| Has soil analysis been done to determine the optimal fertilizer need? | Yes |
| Is the appropriate amount of fertilizer used on the farm? | Yes |
| Has the use of most synthetic fertilizer been reduced on the farm? | No |
| Has the amount of herbicides, specifically Glyphosat, and pesticides been reduced to no more than once per year? | No |
| Is any water treatment done for the water used to process the coffee? | At some of the farms, but not all of them. |
| Regenerative Farming | |
| Does the farm have at least 30 shade trees per hectare? | Yes |
| Does the farm have at least 50 shade trees of 3+ types per hectare? | Yes |
| Is there adequate soil coverage on the farm to promote soil protection? | Yes |
| Has irrigation been limited, only being done on top of covered soil? | Yes |
| Has the use of Chloride been limited? | Yes |
| Has the use of Chloride been stopped completely? | No |
| Is there increasing biodiversity in plant and animal life on the farm? Explain | Not enough data |
| Is there succession based biomass present on the farm (e.g. grass cover crops, pioneer trees, climax trees)? | Not enough data |
| Are all defensive and fertilizing inputs used natural and regenerative? | No |
| Is waste properly disposed of on the farm? | No |
| Does the importer have a plan to seek increased environmental efforts at the farm level? | No |
| Environmentally Conscious Transport | |
| How far was this coffee transported via container ship? | 2378mi / 2066nm |
| How far was this coffee transported via land/truck? | ~750 miles |
| Buying Strategy | |
| Is the coffee price set according to the C-Market? | No, they typically pay up to 40% above market rate based on the quality of the coffee purchased. |
| Does the importer pay producers directly or through a cooperative or other third party? | Directly |
| What is the FOB Price? | $3.38 USD |
| Fair Price for Labor | |
| Is the FOB price in line with the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide? | Yes |
| Does farmgate (amount paid to the farmer) cover the cost of production? | Yes |
| Does farmgate provide a living wage above cost of production? | Yes |
| Working Conditions | |
| Is the farm fair trade certified? | No |
| Do you have an assessment of the risk of child labour, forced labour and human trafficking in your region? | Yes |
| Do you have an assessment of the risks of discrimination, workplace violence and harassment, including sexual and gender-based violence in your region? | Yes |
| Do you have policies and procedures in place for identifying, mitigating, preventing, monitoring and remediating child labour, forced labour, human trafficking, discrimination and workplace violence and harassment, including sexual and gender-based violence? | Yes |
| Philanthropy | |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase gender equity in this growing region? | Yes |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase local education opportunities? | Yes, the importer has brought internet connectivity to the region where the primary farm is located (Piedra Grande Trail, Fresno, Tolima). They plan to do the same in the Gaitania region where several farmers reside. They also have a focus in educating the farmers on better farming and processing techniques. |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to alleviate extreme poverty in the region? | No |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase access to sustainable energy? | No |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to build, maintain, or increase access to local infrastructure? | Yes, by providing access to a wet and dry mill to their partner farmers. |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase access to clean water and/or nutritious food? | Yes, they encourage their farmers to plant a variety of crops such as plantains, citrus fruits, soursop, avocado and other native plants so that they are able to depend not only on coffee as a cash crop but to have different sources revenue and consistent access to fresh, nutritious food. |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to support the local economy through job creation &/or infrastructure maintenance? | No |
Technical Details:
From our importing partner, Forest Coffee:
This coffee project is centered in the village of Gaitania where Emmanuel Enciso is a coffee grower raised by coffee grower parents who taught him everything about coffee. In 2006 he had the opportunity to learn much more about processes, quality, and varieties, while managing to focus his farm and several producers in the zone on producing specialty coffees. However, he had a problem in common with the other local coffee growers- they did not have the capacity to produce large quantities, because they did not have a central processing center for quality processes. That is why in 2016 he began with his family to create a coffee processing center that became a strategic bridge between more than 15 villages in Gaitania, processing the coffees of coffee growers throughout the area. That’s how the Black Condor Project began to build and develop the drying stations to receive the coffee and process all together to ensure 2 things: quality and consistency. Always paying 30% above the market to the producers, Forest Coffee is working with 30-45 independent producers to make this Black Condor project sustainable and unique in the Tolima region.
