Condor Project - Colombia Origin Trip
In July of 2024, we were invited to join Forest Coffee in Colombia for the opportunity to meet the women producers of the Condor Project, score coffees submitted to the end-of-harvest competition, and purchase some of the winning lots. This project involves 96 women producers in Pitalito, Colombia who completed a series of workshops with the goal of teaching new techniques for fermenting and drying specialty coffee. In the past, these producers used traditional methods to process their coffee and haven’t had or realized the opportunity to create lots with different methods and flavor profiles that could be sold outside of a community lot as a special micro lot.
After completing the workshops, they were asked to produce a lot between 50 and 300 kg to enter into the competition. Of the 96 women who attended the workshops, 30 submitted microlots to be graded and sold in the competition. This was narrowed down to 20 lots which we tasted and scored for the final round. The top ten producers from this round received a significant cash bonus for their lots and were offered to Hyperion and the other green buyers who attended the event. The green buyers were also given the opportunity to contribute an additional bonus for any coffee that they wanted to purchase. On top of the bonus price, Hyperion contributed an extra $1 per pound for the top scoring lot we purchased from renowned producer, Ana Gloria Rodriguez.
Ana Gloria submitted a beautiful, washed Pink Bourbon micro lot that blew us away every time it was on the cupping table. This is no surprise because Ana Gloria is widely known for her vast coffee knowledge and empowerment of women coffee producers and workers in the coffee town of Bruselas. She mostly works with women and pays a premium over the local wage as well as providing flexible schedules that are necessary for working women in Colombia with many responsibilities. Ana Gloria also has a daycare service and coffee school on her property. The school provides technical coffee skills, equipment training, as well as entrepreneurial courses to encourage the women to start their own businesses and take on leadership roles in their communities. With her coffee operation and training schools, Ana Gloria has created an association of 43 women that have banded together to sell their coffee in a more commercially viable volume and platform under the brand “Gloriellas”.
We purchased three other coffees at the competition from producers Graciela Rodriguez, Carolina Solis, and Martha Rodriguez. Both Gracelia Rodriguez and Martha Rodriguez submitted washed Pink Bourbon lots and Carolina Solis contributed a natural process lot of the Chiroso cultivar.
These projects are crucial to support coffee producers and encourage innovation despite the many challenges the coffee industry is facing now and in the future. We heard similar stories from the women of the Condor project that we have heard from producers across many coffee growing countries. Climate change, tight labor markets, increased input costs, and lack of generational knowledge exchange have been cited as the main difficulties by coffee farmers everywhere. We see the Condor project as a unique opportunity because it offers these producers an outlet for both their traditional coffees produced in large volumes and their special micro lots that exemplify the best coffees and processing techniques the producers implement to make unique and exciting coffees. We have purchased the Black Condor community lot in the past and are very excited to start roasting the competition coffees from this event to showcase the potential of these amazing producers.
