Welcome to this week’s edition of For the Love of Coffee, a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the staff of Vienna Coffee.
As I write this I have just returned from a 7-day coffee origin trip to Guatemala which was truly amazing. Be on the lookout for next week’s blog about the trip which will include many photos I took while there. Guatemala is beautiful beyond description.
But for now, let’s focus for a few moments on our March featured coffee of the Month - Organic Colombia Huila. This delicious coffee comes from a fertile growing area in southwest Colombia known as the Huila Region. Huila produces more coffee than any other region in Colombia, and when you consider how much coffee Colombia produces annually that is really saying something. In 2016 the Huila region accounted for almost 20% of the entire country’s coffee production!
Coffee trees grow on a beautiful mountainside in the Huila region of Colombia.
Most of the coffee farms in the Huila region are between 12 - 15,000 meters about seal level and benefit from an ideal climate and rich, volcanic soil. While Huila is naturally blessed with optimal coffee-growing geography, the key to this exceptional coffee are the growers themselves. Coffee farming within the region is overwhelmingly small-scale with approximately 80% of the farms being less than 3 hectares (approximately 7.5 acres) of land.
These small farms are tended by individual families with labor only very rarely being contracted out, leading to more thorough and intensive management practices. The farmers take great pride in their product which for them is an extension of their family.
Here at Vienna Coffee we take great pride in offering coffee that is ethically-sourced from small family farms like those in the Huila region. We know that the coffee grown there is more than just an agricultural commodity to the families that live and toil their whole lives, many for multiple generations, to produce a product that blesses the world with it’s exceptional quality and beautiful story.
You can be proud to know that you are part of this beautiful story every time you brew and serve Organic Colombia Huila in the upcoming month. You make a difference in the lives of our customers, our suppliers, and in the lives of those farmers 2,250 miles south of our humble little cafe’ here in Maryville.
It’s a GREAT day for coffee!
Matt
