Archive: Colombia Yacuanquer

This regional blending of coffees comes from the municipality Yacuanquer, located in the Nariño department of Colombia. Yacuanquer comprises smallholder farmers, spanning many farms, showcasing a taste of not just a specific farm, but the region.

This region lies right in the middle of the Andean Mountain range, with only 10% of it being flat. Traditionally, the main crops grown in this region were beans and corn until the last decade when farmers took advantage of the bigger market and better coffee prices. Today, around 95% of agriculture is coffee in Yacuanquer.

While some of the world’s coffee farmers farm large estates equipped with robust wet-milling, dry-milling, and - in some cases - export operations, the majority (on the order of 70%, actually) of the world’s coffee farmers can be characterized as “smallholder farmers.” Smallholder farmers tend to their “smallholdings,” which typically contain a mixture of cash and subsistence crops and rarely exceed 1-5 hectares. This allows producers to have greater control of their crops and post-harvest processes, ensuring a more sustainable quality from harvest to harvest and gives us the pleasure of enjoying this coffee year after year.