Harvest Notes from the Hills of Huila

Notes from a week in the Huila highlands, where we walked the rows with the family who grows our newest coffee.

Up the Mountain at Harvest Time

We landed in Neiva before sunrise and drove the last two hours on a road that was mostly switchbacks. By seven we were standing among the coffee trees at 1,750 metres, watching Marisol Quintero and her pickers move through the rows with baskets tied at their waists. Only the ripest cherries are picked, deep red and a little sticky with sugar, and every tree is revisited every ten days or so as the rest ripen. It is slow work, and you can taste the patience in the cup.

Every cherry is picked by hand, and the best lots are sorted a second time before they ever reach a drying bed.

At the small mill beside the house, the cherries are pulped, fermented overnight and spread in thin layers on raised beds. Marisol turns them by hand every hour while the sun is out and covers them when the clouds roll in. After about three weeks the beans are dry, sweet and ready to rest before the long journey to Bergen.

Meeting the Family Behind the Beans

Marisol took over the farm from her father eight years ago and has quietly rebuilt it: shade trees between the rows, a new water filter at the mill and a drying shed that finally keeps the rain out. Her brother Tomás runs the nursery, where thousands of seedlings wait for next season. Over a long lunch of arepas and sweet panela coffee we agreed to buy the best of her harvest, around forty bags.

We start roasting it in November. Expect red apple, brown sugar and a soft, lingering finish. It will be our filter coffee through the winter, and the whole story will be printed on the bag.

Photo by Andrew Kliatskyi on Unsplash.