Kittel- El Origen, Colombia, Washed

COUNTRY: Colombia
REGION: Minca, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
VARIETY: Caturra
ALTITUDE: 900 - 1200 meters
PROCESS: Honey
IN THE CUP: Toffee, marzipan, cherry

After traveling all over Central and South America, Helmut Ullrich left his home in Austria to follow his dream: to live sustainably in nature. He bought a plot of land in Colombia and soon discovered that it contained coffee plants left untended. With the help of Pedro, whose family had been living on the land for years, Helmut began to cultivate coffee. Now 6 years later, Pedro is the farm’s manager, and Helmut employs three other core employees (Mono, Vincente, and Julio) as well as seasonal workers from the region, and neighbouring Venezuela. All of his employees, he boosts, are paid as much as three times the national average. And with the profits from his partnership with Kittel and a few European roasters, as well as the profits from his cafe in the town of Santa Marta, Helmut lives the other part of his dream: he plants native trees to combat climate change. After meeting Helmut and hearing the story, we knew we wanted to work together, and when we tasted the great quality coffee his farm produces we formally began our Direct Trade partnership.