Los Magnificos Geisha - Colombia

Floral and complex. Tasting like rose, raspberry and jasmine. Lingering peach notes. 

Origin: Colombia
Region: San Agustin, Huila
Producer: Various producers from the Monkaaba group: Orlando Quinayas, Diana
Quinayas, Jose Omar Muñoz, Rovira
Salamanca, Stiven Hoyos
Elevation: 1600 - 1989 masl
Variety: Geisha
Process: Washed 

(Processing varies between producers, and each producer delivers their parchment to the Monkaaba bodega, where it is then tasted, analyzed, and chosen for this lot)

Roasted for: Filter

This lot immediately stood out when we first cupped it, and we knew it had to join our lineup.

Cupped blind, its profile was unmistakably Geisha - though we were surprised to learn it was a community lot. Once we knew, everything clicked as the complexity in the cup reflects this.

We source this lot through our partners at Semilla and Monkaaba, and as always the way they work simply makes sense, serving a true purpose while also ensuring incredibly high quality. 

This lot represents the fourth iteration of Los Magnificos, designed to ensure that small lots of higher-quality coffee are still able to be purchased despite their size. The vast majority of the producers involved in this blend manage very small plots, and as a result, are often delivering tiny amounts of coffee.

In the instance that they have more land, this allows Semilla to take small amounts that might come from a single pass and avoid waiting for a lot of size to be delivered from a single producer, in which time the quality might suffer. 

For example, Diana Quinayas has now contributed only 32kg of parchment to this specific lot (considering a 90 yield factor less than 40% equivalent to a full exportable 70kg bag). This type of quantity would be difficult to mill and export on its own (or at the very least, highly costly and time consuming) but the quality of his coffee and others involved was high enough that to reject it on the basis of size would lead them to sell it to another larger buyer where it would receive likely a lower price and also would then be anonymously blended into massive regional lots that move with little traceability and leave the smallholder wondering where their coffee went and how to build off the sale.

It’s a sad reality still of the global coffee system - and especially in a massive producing state like Huila - that the logistics and management around small lots are too costly or time-consuming to make economic sense for buyers. As a result, it’s not only that the quality must be high, it’s that a smallholder must have the requisite quantity as well to earn the higher prices they deserve.

Los Magnificos seeks to serve the purpose of opening opportunities and giving smallholders a steady ground to build from as they make the challenging steps of improving their post-harvest processing practices.  Even in small amounts, the revenue earned makes a difference, but more importantly, it opens a place for community, dialogue, and learning that is normally not offered to such smallholders. The result is often a holding pattern where buyers can benefit, and smallholders are motivated or incentivized to improve and grow.