Colombia - Huila Mágico

£8.75

8th place winner in the Huila Mágico Competition held in Colombia by Coffee Quest and local partners The Bean Project.

Notes: Limoncello, grapefruit, tropical fruit & sweet
Location: Huila
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1500m
Varietal: Caturra, Castillo & Colombia
Location: Finca El Corozal

The Huila Mágico Competition is the contest we ran in Pitalito, in Southern Huila, Colombia. Pitalito: one region with a kaleidoscopic range of coffee stories and profiles to be found.

Life as a small coffee farmer is a continuous challenge, especially if you want to produce top lots. However, when it comes to dealing with external factors such as Covid-19, nobody is fully prepared. The Huila Mágico Competition was organized exactly for this purpose. To reward the farmers’ efforts in the face of the pandemic, and, of course, the chance to find the highest quality coffees from this region.

The idea to run a contest for top coffees dates back to a long time ago, but the idea was finally executed in cooperation with local partner The Bean Project.

To fully understand how this contest was set up, we have to go back to early 2020, when Colombia was in the middle of the harvest season and additionally in full lockdown – meaning no travelling was allowed in the country.

During the harvest, coffee farmers normally hire additional workers to help pick cherries, the majority of the seasonal workers are migrating from other cities and states to work. Although, the national lockdown prevented seasonal pickers from travelling to coffee farms in Huila.

“We always wanted to run a contest for top lots, but until that moment we felt the market was saturated, due to the numerous local/regional competitions popping up.” – Stephen Levene from The Coffee Quest Colombia.

It was time! Farmers needed extra motivation and deserved to be rewarded for their extra efforts, especially during these challenging moments!