This coffee was grown and harvested by four women producers: Angelica Rojas from Finca La Gloria, Diana Zambrano from Finca La Esperanza, Aseneth Bedoya from Finca Maranata, and Mercedes Vasquez, from Finca El Ventilador. Hailing from Planadas, Tolima in western Colombia, they are all exceptional in their craft and bring a lifetime of experience to each harvest. We were really excited to be able to get this coffee from importing partner The Coffee Quest, who has been working with these farmers, as well as their extended family. In fact, the coffee was processed by Mercedes' son, Jorge Rojas, whose coffee we featured in the Fruity profile in June!

Each farm is 7 hectares on average, and all of the women are 4th generation coffee growers, working alongside the ASOPEP coffee cooperative and Jorge Rojas from Finca El Jardin to elevate their craft and achieve unique coffees. This lot is the representation of the hard work between all parties involved.

Although not certified organic, growers in this region of the country have a strong sense of environmental responsibility and use many clean practices on their farms. Marco Marin, Impact Coordinator for The Coffee Quest explains, "For example, the women of Tala Bocanera have an adequate wastewater management system for washing coffee, and they use the coffee husks from the washing process for composting."

They employ a number of other sustainable practices, says Marco, such as, "the diversified planting of coffee plots, which benefits the soils and internal ecosystems of each farm, as well as the family economy and food security, since many of these species planted in the middle of the crop produce food for family consumption. On the other hand, this group of women demonstrates a solid and collaborative family economy, since all family members support each other to improve their productivity and the quality of each batch produced."