Timaná is one of Colombia’s oldest original settlements. It is a town full of stories, tradition, and culture. The name comes from the Kechua language and means a place where ceramics and colourful geometric handicraft are made.

The town is also known for its unique geography and water resources. It is surrounded not only by the Andes mountains, but also the Magdalena and Golden Rivers. The convergence of all these geographic features has resulted in coffees from this region being balanced and complex.

Coffee growers from Timaná are descendants of three indigenous tribes who worked together to rebel against the Spanish conquerors.

Contributing Producers

The producers contributing to Timanco are all from Tarqui and Timaná, with farms ranging in size from 1 to 5 hectares. An interesting aspect to highlight is that most of them work as a family, where each member plays a role in coffee production. Another noteworthy aspect of these producers is their dedication and passion, and most importantly, the love they put into producing quality coffee.

Since the brand was established and more producers have contributed to it, significant changes have been observed on their farms, including improvements at the wet mill and the expansion of drying areas. The producers have also gained more knowledge in various areas such as processing, cherry picking, fermentation, drying, and identifying plagues and diseases, with the assistance of the PECA agronomist.

The coffee contributing to Timanco is harvested and processed using micro-mills on each farm. The process begins with manual cherry picking, emphasizing the selection of ripe cherries. In some cases, an additional manual selection of cherries is done before pulping, which takes place on the same day. At the wet mill on each farm, the cherries are pulped without water, followed by traditional fermentation in open-air tanks for an average of 24 hours. After fermentation, the coffee beans are washed 2 to 3 times.

For drying, the beans are placed on parabolic covered patios or raised covered beds, with drying times varying from 15 to 20 days depending on the farm. The final parchment coffee is sometimes stored on the farm for one to two weeks. A sample is then taken by the coffee grower to the purchasing station, where it undergoes a rigorous physical analysis to measure moisture level, water activity, and yield factor. After the physical analysis, a sensory analysis is conducted to determine the coffee’s quality grade. Based on the feedback from these analyses, the coffee grower brings the coffee to the warehouse for sale. From the warehouse, the parchment coffee is sent to Caravela’s Dry Mill in Armenia, where it is further processed and prepared for shipment.