Red Associations Santuario is an association made up of 218 producers from the region surrounding the town of Santuario, Risaralda. Both land mass and production scale vary from producer to producer, and the altitude covered by the association as a whole sits between 1300 and 1900 MASL.

The municipality itself is located 1500-1700 MASL in the West of the department, 62 km from the region’s capital, Pereira, and anchored at the foot of the Tatama National Park.

Philip and James were lucky enough to visit the region, mill and the farmers involved in this association back in 2018. They got the chance to experience a traditional celebration ceremony, with songs, dance and food. This region has historically made their money from selling panela (cane sugar).

Risaralda

White Star Coffee is a coffee roaster based in the heart of Belfast delivering exclusive and bespoke coffee and machine solutions.

We source speciality coffee with the highest quality in mind and look to work with farmers/cooperatives who are progressive in their practices and determined to farm in sustainable and transparent ways.

White Star Coffee

Having found its sovereignty in 2002, Timor-Leste is one of the world’s youngest countries. As the country finds stability, the development of the agriculture sector is rapidly becoming an important pillar for the structural transformation of the country’s economy.

Timor-Leste currently faces enormous economic upheaval, as its oil reserves begin to run dry. In its place, coffee is set to become the nation’s most vital export.

In Timor-Leste, the work of Raw Material work is currently focussed namely in the municipality of Ermera. One of thirteen municipalities in the country, it is home to the largest coffee production volumes, whilst almost 60% of the municipality's population live below the poverty line. Home to the production of fantastic naturally processed coffees and the purchasing of cherry processed at the Atsabe community wet mill. Zachael, the village chief has been an ambassador for the future of Timor-Leste specialty coffee when discussing the future systems with neighbouring village chiefs and farmers. We are excited to present you a coffee from the suco (village) of Malabe. Cherry from Malabe is collected daily and processed at the Atsabe wet mill in Baboe Kraik, situated at 1400MASL.

Region: Ermera
Varietal: Hibrido de Timor, Moka, Typica

Malabe Village

Region: Valle del Cauca, El Aguila
Varietal: Castillo, Caturra

El Aguila is also known by its full name, Asotatama El Aguila. Located in the municipality of El Aguila in the department of Valle del Cauca, the association is comprised of 93 members. These producers are spread across an incredibly unique stretch of mountains, in the Tatama National Park. This geographical transition between the Andes and the Pacific Area of Colombia is biologically abundant, and an impeccable place for coffee production where the producers live, between 1700-1900 MASL. Like the majority of associations, the individual farms that comprise it vary in size. For El Aguila, these farms range between 5 and 15 hectares.

We are excited to showcase this microlot from Erika Obando, one of the first producers Raw Material have worked with to produce microlots from the El Aguila association. Erika Obando and her family have lived in the El Aguila region for over 50 years. She lives on her farm La Divina with her husband, where she has been growing her interest in coffee quality for the last 3 years. Erika is an active member of the youth program of Asotatama El Aguila Association which is composed of 17 young producers.

This year as a group, they would like to create a unique coffee, grown by a group of these young coffee growers. Most of these young coffee growers have been working in the Asotatama lab, where Erika continues to be one of the leaders in QC and cupping. In fact, she is in charge of most of the QC for the association's regional blend. With her knowledge, she and her husband have been processing the coffee of her farm La Divina. Together, they have implemented a 48-hour fermentation protocol for their harvest and most of the coffee has rendered fantastic results. The rest of the process is completed using traditional methods, where the coffee is dried for 15 days, packed in sisal woven bags and then delivered to the association for approval, before being bagged in GrainPro.

Erika Obando

Region: West Valley
Varietal: H3 / H17

The Duran family farm, Santa Teresa, is in the village of Sarchí in the West Valley. Eduardo works the farm with his three sons; one is actively involved in coffee and the other two work as software engineers. They all show great passion for coffee and to continue the work their seventy-year-old father has been doing for decades. All three brothers spent most of their school holidays working in the field either picking, stumping, or planting trees. The Duran's recognise that today, in addition to carrying on traditions, one must be innovative in coffee production. Kendall, one of Eduardo’s sons, is working hard with his brothers to help bring their coffee to better markets. The farm sells the majority of its crop to CoopeNaranjo, the local cooperative, to ensure cash flow.

The farm consists of different plots of land, each between two and three hectares. The lowest plot is 1100 meters above sea level and grows healthy Sarchimor trees and an F1 hybrid variety, a cross between an Ethiopian landrace and Sarchimor. Other parcels range from 1300 meters to up to 1600 meters. These plots have different varieties such as Catuaí and Caturra as well as other new hybrids such as Centroamericano H1, H3, and H17. These hybrids can have great results in production levels and in the cup while being more resistant to disease and fungi.

This lot of Black Honey was dried on raised beds for 21 days.

The Duran family will have a special place in the White Star family, James and Philip had the opportunity to go visit the farm just before lockdown and meet the family who had produced the F1 black honey last year which started this relationship. It was amazing to learn more about their ideas for growth and to see the impact the purchase from the F1 has had.

To Eduardo, Kendall, Barney, and Martha thank you for your incredible hospitality and all your work, we are excited to develop our friendship over the coming years!

Costa Rica, Duran Family

Region: Kyanza
Varietal: Red Bourbon

Yandaro station sits close to the border with Rwanda, in the Kayanza province. Both countries share special growing conditions in the corridor that connects the south of Rwanda to the north of Burundi. This region produces many of our favorite coffees both in Rwanda and Burundi.

The washing station is in the valley where the eponymous Yandaro river runs. The growing area around the station benefits from being close to the Kibira Rainforest. A rainforest helps maintain groundwater reserves and adequate nutrition levels in the soil for the region surrounding it. Stationed near the rainforest and a large river, Yandaro is in a very strategic location within a high-potential coffee region.

The station serves 3,190+ local coffee producers from 22 hills around the station. The average altitude in the area is 1,800 meters above sea level. Yandaro processes more than 1,200 metric tons of coffee throughout the harvest season. The region has a mild climate with average temperatures between 18 and 25° Celsius, depending on the altitude.

Yandaro station participates in a number of farmer outreach and support projects include a goat and pig project, Farmer Hub, strengthening cooperatives and distributing fertilizer and coffee trees.

Burundi Yandaro

Region: La Celia
Varietal: Colombia, Castillo, Caturra

Given the different social and cultural dynamics in the rural areas of Colombia women have faced multiple barriers for leadership in their own coffee family business. With this, the opportunities for gaining economic and social independence have failed in the past. Their contribution as women is essential to the sustainability of the coffee supply chain. Even knowing this, these women are not always recognised as such.

The women’s group IMH (Igualdad Mujeres Hombres) is an initiative of rural women that have been part of a continuous process of learning, with the aim of producing and processing high quality coffee. The group are focussed on processing techniques, from picking to drying, with the goal of improving flavour for sale into the specialty market.

From this association, the women promote workshops and exchange between both male and female coffee producers. The goal here is to enhance productivity in the long term, encouraging respectful dynamics between men and women in these rural areas of Colombia.

Their farms are located near the Tatama natural park in the north west of Risaralda, which provides a unique micro climate for high quality coffee production. Producers in the association are able to access the specialty supply chain, whilst simultaneously creating a respectful environment for women coffee producers. This group strive for equal opportunities for women, to be able to decide the future of the returns that their sales produce, for both business and family.

Colombia, IMH Women's Group

Region: Valle Central
Varietal: SL28

The adventurous and inquisitive side of the Guardìa family is reflected in varieties like the SL 28. The variety SL 28 is widespread in Kenya and other growing areas in East Africa but is not often found growing in In Central America.

SL 28 was developed in the 1930s in the Scott Laboratories (hence the abbreviation SL) in Kenya from the Bourbon variety and immediately caught the scientists' attention because of its refined taste profile: a unique combination of delicate sweetness, exciting acids and intense fruit complexity.

Our SL 28 is a pure Natural, which means that after harvesting, the entire ripe coffee cherries are spread out on the patios of Hacienda Sonora to dry, together with the surrounding pulp. The coffee beans absorb the full aroma of the fruit in the form of the fructose.

This SL 28 is one of the most complex and well-balanced coffees in this year's Costa Rica range. This filter coffee is a real fruit bomb with a zingy pineapple acidity.

Hacienda Sonora sits at the foot of the Poas Volcano. The farm operates on 100% renewable energy generated by a hydroelectric generator that transform rushing rivers into energy. The energy fuels the wet and dry mills and provides free electricity for everyone living and working on the farm. On the whole, Hacienda Sonora has shared their success generously, paying fair wages to all workers and bolstering the local community economy.

Hacienda Sonora

Region: Quindío
Varietal: Castillo

The Farm

Beyond simply being Raw Material's central meeting point and office, El Fénix was designed with the long-term vision of three distinct, complementary, supporting businesses sharing one space.

Namely, El Fenix is an organic rare-variety coffee forest and post-harvest lab. A space for experimenting and gathering data first-hand on new practical farming. Techniques, adaption to organic production, and selective breeding programs. To host farm management and cupping courses for producers and roasters, and to gain roasters’ attention.

El Fénix farm is located in the eastern municipality of Quindío, Colombia in Calarcá. It faces west toward the Cauca Valley and the central mountain range. The farm has ideal climate conditions with a strong sun reflection off the valley and an average rainfall of 2,275mm a year, in addition to natural spring falls which provide water for the farm’s needs.

For this particular washed castillio the coffee goes through a 24 hour fermentation under the water seal that each coffee experiences, the coffee is then pulped and fermented again in the same fashion for another 24 hours. As with the honey process, this enhances the sweetness and acidity of the cup profile.

The coffee is then washed with fresh water 3 times, to ensure all mucilage and residues are removed. The coffee is left in the water-sealed vessel for 24 hours more after the washing process is complete, which we have found to boost the aroma of the final cup. These aromas tend to be bright and sweet, with more floral notes in the nose. The coffee is then fully sun-dried before packing.

Colombia, El Fenix

Region: Gakenke, Gasiza
Varietal: Bourbon

Bumbogo is located in an area known for high-quality coffee production in Rwanda. It is a highly competitive region in Rwanda and has been home to some of the winning lots of the Cup of Excellence. All cherry is hand-sorted before a pre-pulp float, under-ripe or damaged cherry is removed, along with any foreign objects. Cherry is then floated in pre-pulping tanks removing any floaters and later pulped.

Next, coffee is fermented in dedicated concrete fermentation tanks for an average of 12 hours. During this time, the fermenting parchment is agitated several times through the day by way of ceremonial foot stomping. After fermentation, coffee is released into a large serpentine grading channel. This is a moving channel of water that allows any floaters or foreign objects to float off and be discarded. This process also separates parchment into different density grades. The highest density grade, A1, is trapped by submerged gates early on in the serpentine, where lower density coffee is allowed to pass through. Eventually, we end up with three grades A1 and A2, which sell as specialty coffee, and A3/A4 grades which usually sell in the commercial market. During the washing process, parchment is continuously agitated to encourage lower density parchment to float and to clean any residual mucilage off the parchment.

Once the parchment is separated into grades, it is given a final post wash rinse. At this point, coffee is taken to a predrying area where the parchment is hand-sorted removing any insect damaged, discoloured or chipped coffee. The parchment is laid out to dry and turned on a regular basis throughout the day.

Rwanda, Bumbogo Washed

Helvecio Chagas Reis, born in Três Pontas, Minas Gerais, was encouraged by his father, Ademar, to plant his first coffee plot in 1980, and started his journey in coffee farming. 

In 1992, he started to manage his wife Iêda's farm, located in the city of Carmo da Cachoeira. Helvécio started a great work in Santa Terezinha farm, where there was no coffee plantation. Today, the farm produces annually lots of commodity and some lots of specialty coffees, with a structure that guarantees the quality of the beans, added to the high altitude of the region and the microclimate that favor quality coffees. 

In addition, the cultural treatments throughout the year and all the care taken during the post-harvest period preserve the characteristics of the beans coming from the plantation. 

Helvecio counts today with the help of his son, Lucia- no, an agronomist who graduated from UFLA and active in the PROCAFE Foundation. Together, they seek to further improve the quality of Santa Terezinha's coffee. 

Brazil Helvecio Chagas Reis

In 2017, Raw Material met with producer groups in Colombia to understand what is preventing farmers from accessing the specialty market. Despite good production levels, income from coffee for these families dropped to unsustainable levels in the past few years.

They faced a crossroads; either find alternative means of income outside coffee or find a more stable and sustainable market. During these discussions, we heard farmers describe their core challenges: a lack of key infrastructure; and a lack of stable prices to provide certainty for investment in improved quality. Together, we also uncovered a wide gap between how coffee quality is discussed and measured at the farm level compared with the roasting end of the value chain.

To address these challenges, we launched the Red Associations. With the new infrastructure in place, we are able to pay individual farmers a minimum fixed price of 1M COP/carga of dry parchment coffee they produce through a community lot. This price results in double the household income of a typical coffee producing family, compared with the average income in the regular market over the past 5 years.

Once the new infrastructure is built, fixed price payments can get directly to producers through a transparent system. The goal is to achieve stable and sustainable prices for community coffee lots through improved quality control, shared knowledge, and a connection to the specialty coffee market.

Red in Spanish means network, representing the producers and roasters working together to create a sustainable value chain. The municipality of El Aguila is known for its abundant coffee production, which is the region’s main source of income. The coffee quality and fertile lands make this one of the most important economic centers of the North of Valle del Cauca.

El Aguila

This coffee is picked and hand sorted at Jairo's farm in Armenia, Quindio. After, it is transported to Cofinet's processing station where it is dry fermented for 16 hours before being washed and dried in parabolic dryers.

Jairo Arcila is a third generation coffee grower in Quindio, Colombia. Married to Luz Helena Salazar they had two children together: Carlos and Felipe Arcila, the co-founders of Cofinet. Jairo’s first job was at Colombia’s second-largest exporter as their Mill Manager. And continued to work there for over 40 years until his retirement in 2019. 

Jairo bought his first coffee farm, Finca La Esmeralda in 1987, where he planted his first Caturra lot. He was fortunate enough to earn money by producing coffee while also working full time for the local exporter. Using his savings Jairo slowly managed to purchase five additional farms. First Villarazo, then Mazatlan, Santa Monica, Maracay and Buenos Aires.

Colombia, Jairo Arcila

The Gakenke district where Bumbogo is located is an area known for high-quality coffee production in Rwanda. It is a highly competitive region, and home to several winning Cup of Excellence lots in recent years. 

Bumbogo is the station closest to Kigali that Raw Material work with, built in 2017. The station has more than doubled their production since 2018, with an impressive expanse of drying beds covering the hills surrounding the washing station itself. The station works alongside the community in ways external to the purchase and processing of its coffee. This value adds when paired can massively improve not only quality but the yields of a producer’s land.

All cherry is hand-sorted before a pre-pulp float, underripe or damaged cherry is removed, along with any foreign objects. Cherry is then floated in pre-pulping tanks removing any floaters and later pulped. 

Once the cherry is sorted and cleaned, it is ready to be dried. The cherries are laid out evenly across raised beds, providing consistent airflow, and height away to prevent moisture and animals coming into contact with the cherry. The cherry is dried for 30 days, turned constantly when the sun is high and covered during the night. Once the cherry has dried, the now dried outer fruit is removed, and the coffee beans are ready to be organised for packing.

Rwanda, Bumbogo, Natural

Raw Material have been operating in Timor-Leste since 2018. In Atsabe Raw Material commissioned the construction of the Atsabe community wet mill. Last year we were delighted to showcase two stunning East Timorese coffees from Raw Material, and this year we are equally as excited to see your reaction to this natural coffee from Atsabe.

About Raw Material and Timor-Leste:

Having found its sovereignty in 2002, Timor-Leste is one of the world’s youngest countries. As the country finds stability, the development of the agriculture sector is rapidly becoming an important pillar for the structural transformation of the country’s economy. 

Timor-Leste currently faces enormous economic upheaval, as its oil reserves begin to run dry. In its place, coffee is set to become that nation’s most vital export. In Timor-Leste, Raw Material's work is currently focussed namely in the municipality of Ermera. One of thirteen municipalities in the country, it is home to the largest coffee production volumes, whilst almost 60% of the municipality's population live below the poverty line. Coffee is Timor-Leste’s most important crop, and with the end of oil income, improving the coffee sector is of critical importance. Coffee is the second-highest earner for the country after oil, with 37% of households depend on coffee for income. 

Atsabe Natural

We have been working with Raw Material and El Carmen for a few years now and each year the crop and production gets better and better. This project is close to our hearts having been out to meet the producers and to have seen the incredible change in the lives of those who are involved.

El Carmen is the first member of the Red Associations project, based in Pitalito, Huila. The Red Association in this region began with the creation of a drying hub, where producers from the local area could dry their harvest without the risk of rainfall rinsing away their profits.

Previously, producers had to sell their parchment wet, through an intermediary who would dry on their behalf. This meant that this vital step was out of the producer’s control, which in turn meant they could only capture a portion of the potential return for their harvest.

Once these hubs were complete, attentions turned to a space for the QC and cupping lab to be housed. This is a space next to the drying hub, that will be fully repurposed for the lab. Once the equipment has been purchased and fitted in the hub, producer members of the Red Associations will have direct access to how their coffee is graded, first hand, with the opportunity to better know the market that their coffees move into, and how best to later their own methods at farm, to potentially capture a larger return for their harvests.e ensures that a consistent drying takes place throughout.

White Star Coffee

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White Star Coffee

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Served in Coffee Shops

Coffee Roasts

Atsabe Natural

Brazil Helvecio Chagas Reis

Burundi Yandaro

Colombia, Corozal

Colombia, El Fenix

Colombia, IMH Women's Group

Colombia, Jairo Arcila

Colombia, Tumbaga Decaf

Colombia, Villamaría

Costa Rica, Duran Family

Rwanda, Bumbogo Washed

Rwanda, Bumbogo, Natural

Coffee archive

El Aguila

Erika Obando

Hacienda Sonora

Malabe Village

Risaralda

Risaralda

New Coffee Review