Las Perlitas - Colombia

Las Perlitas (“Little Pearls”) is our newest community lot from Huila

During harvest in Colombia, it is quite common for smallholder farmers to produce high quality lots that don’t quite have the volume to process by themselves. Dry mills usually require 5 or more bags worth of parchment coffee to make it feasible to process through the milling and sorting equipment, but many small farmers produce specialty grade coffee at smaller volumes than this. The quality of these lots is as good or better than many of the larger microlots so it is important to reward farmers for their hard work instead of punishing them for a lack of volume. This is why community lots play such a crucial role in specialty coffee and should not be ignored or downgraded because more than one farmer contributes to the lot. 

This coffee consists of washed Pink Bourbon lots from farmers all over Huila. The lots are selected based on cup score and flavor profile then blended to create an export-sized lot. Identifying and rewarding farmers for their high quality small lots is crucial so these lots aren’t sold for less than they are worth or blended with lower quality regional lots solely based on lot size. This system of community lots and co-ops is very common in origins with mostly small-holder farmers (Ethiopia in particular), but we tend to judge these types of lots from Central and South America as lower quality although this is not the case.