The department of Huila is a big player in the production of coffee in Colombia, having amazing agroclimatic conditions being bordered on the east and west by mountain ranges, and traversed by the mighty Magdalena River. On the southern part you’ll find the corregimiento of Bruselas, which is part of the municipality of Pitalito. Bruselas counts with some incredible conditions as it is close to the Macizo Colombiano where the Andes diverts into the three mountain ranges or cordilleras of Colombia and being also the birthplace of the five main rivers of Colombia such as the Magdalena and Cauca Rivers. The production of coffee has brought Bruselas notoriety, and specially of quality coffee, becoming the main economic income in the area. Bruselas is the corregimientos that produces more volume of coffee in the Andes Region, hence the name of the brand: Andino Especial. It is a place with hard working coffee growers, where the knowledge has been passed through generations as many of the farms. The steep and rugged mountains, plus the climate and people make this coffee outstanding and special from the heart of the Colombian Andes. Caravela started working with coffee growers in Bruselas in the early 2000’s and o cially opened the warehouse in 2015. Constantly working together with coffee growers through our Quality and PECA to achieve good qualities of all our grades.

Contributing Producers

The coffee growers of Bruselas are traditional with small farms with an average size of 3 hectares, where many of the chores are carried on by the family. Even though they are traditional coffee growers with the knowledge passed by generations, in these last years they have started to plant exotic varieties such as Pink Bourbon, Gesha and others. Some other changes have been on the post-harvest process such as using closed containers for fermentation rather than the usual open-air tanks and incrementing fermentation times. With this aspect, it has been fundamental the accompanying of the PECA educator on the personalized visits to improve on pre-harvest, harvest, and post-harvest practices. As well as starting to implement more sustainable practices at the farm and protecting the environment and natural resources. On the other hand, the timely feedback by the Quality Analyst has allowed the coffee growers to understand the defects on the coffees and what factors to improve at the farm to bring up the quality of the coffee. Scan the QR code to know more about Colombia The coffee growers of Bruselas are hardworking people who place e ort and passion in their coffee production. They work with their family and teaching their kids about their passion, looking for that generational change. They are very festive and kind people as you can see and live when they have their regional festivities, Fiestas of San Pedro. Besides coffee, they sometimes have other smaller crops such as avocado, tomato, plantain, lulo and others.

The process for this coffee starts with a manual cherry picking focused on only picking the ripe cherries and in some cases, they make a manual selection of the cherries before pulping. At the wet mill, in each farm, the cherries are pulped after which the beans are traditionally left to ferment in open-air tanks for 24 to 36 hours. In some cases, the fermentation is being done in closed bags or containers without water for the same 24 to 36 hours. Following this step, the coffee beans are washed in average 2 to 3 times. For drying, the beans are taking to parabolic covered patios or raised beds and the drying time depends on the farm which can go from 8 to 20 days. Some farms do a two-step drying, in which they first do a first drying in the shade from 4 to 5 days to let the beans drain the excess water. The final parchment coffee is sometimes stored in the farm for one to two weeks. A sample is taken by the coffee grower and delivered to the purchasing station to be analyzed by the Quality Analyst. Here it goes through a rigorous physical analysis first to measure moisture level, water activity and the yield factor. After, it undergoes through the sensory analysis which will finally determine the quality grade of the coffee. Then, the coffee grower will bring the coffee to the warehouse to sell it depending on the feedback of the physical and sensory analysis. From the warehouse, the parchment coffee is sent to Caravela’s Dry Mill in Armenia where it is processed and sent to port.