Colombia – Emma Chantre

Region: Pedregal, Inzá , Cauca

Farm: Buena Vista

Altitude: 1800 MASL

Varietal: Caturra, Colombia

Process: Washed, Fermented for 12-24 Hours, Dried in parabolic covered raised beds for 12-15 days

Notes: Tart Cherry, Vanilla Bean, Whipped Cream

100% Arabica

Emma Chantre is a well-known coffee producer in Palmichal who has been developing her business since 1976. Like so many other producers, Emma learned how to cultivate coffee while supporting its ecosystem through generations of ancestral knowledge. Her farm, Finca Buena Vista, is 4 hectares and filled with a diverse set of native fruit trees, flowering plants, and coffee varieties of Caturra and Colombia.

Coffee producers of Inzá often share similar values and traditions. Typically handed down through inheritance, each farm is 1-2 hectares and produces 1300 kilos of parchment coffee per season on average. Community members or day laborers are hired during the harvest season while each family maintains its own farm throughout the year. Cherry is processed for defects, depulped, and dried on-site. Parchment coffee is loaded onto a mule for transport or driven to the nearest dry mill. 

Deep in the interior of Colombia’s department of Cauca lies the province of Inzá, known in Colombia as La Tierra Adentro. On a good day, it is a two-hour drive from Popayán and La Plata in either direction, but frequent mudslides and road closures mean it’s often not easily accessible. On clear days in the village of Inzá, one can see straight up to the Nevado del Huila, the highest volcano in Colombia. The famous Paez river runs east through the valley, connecting Cauca and Huila. Very little coffee is grown below 1750 masl with a great portion growing at 1900 masl. Caturra, Castillo, and Typica are found in the region, with Caturra being the dominant variety.

The coffee producers of Inzá were in many ways the original inspiration and motivation for the creation of Red Fox Coffee Merchants (our exporter). Aleco’s (Co-Founder of Red Fox) twelve-year relationship with the Asorcafe Producers’ Association of Inzá has been rewarded with success in quality and new discoveries. Red Fox buys coffees from three main communities or counties within the Inzá municipality — Pedregal, San Antonio, and the town of Inzá. Each village is often composed of just a handful of families with no more than 20-30 hectares dedicated to growing coffee. 

Text and photos courtesy of Red Fox Coffee Merchants.