Colombia La Gaitana Organic

This special lot of Organic coffee takes its name from La Gaitana, a female indigenous leader who ruled the land north of the municipality of Pitalito, Huila before the Spanish conquest. She is a character who is attributed almost mythical powers in local lore. One of her most famous stories has her burying hundreds of tons of gold artifacts in order to hide them from the Spaniards. Thousands of eager fortune hunters have spent their lives looking for this treasure around a lake in Arrayanes, only to come out empty-handed at the end.

We know that the REAL gold lies in the marriage between the prime coffee growing conditions of the region and the hard work of local producers. Whilst Huila is naturally blessed with optimal coffee growing geography, the key to great quality coffees from the region (such as this lot) are the growers themselves. Coffee farming within the region is overwhelmingly small-scale. Indeed, approximately 80% of producers from Huila farm coffee on less than 3 hectares of land. These small farms are tended by individual families with labour only very rarely being contracted out, which leads to more thorough and intensive management practices and great pride in the final product – which is, itself, an extension of the family.

Asobombo is a young association founded by experienced producers in the municipality of Pitalito, located in Huila’s southwest. The organization was formed by 50 coffee producers who, led by the founding Diaz family, banded together in order to attain - as a group - what most of them had tried but failed to accomplish independently for a very long time: economic sustainability through long term specialty programs. Even more, they have managed to gain Organic certification. The arduous process took two years, but they have now adapted agricultural practices across their membership to fulfill all the organic certification requirements. They have also been certified Rainforest Alliance (now Utz) and Fair Trade.