My fiancée and I were on a 14-month trip around the world in October 2018 and had just crossed the Caribbean Sea on a sailboat. By chance, a good friend told us about the Red Ecolsierra Santa Marta coffee cooperative. Since we are huge coffee fans (especially of a really good flat – a cappuccino-like coffee creation with double espresso and frothed milk), we set off to visit them.

When I first saw the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range in Colombia, bathed in the bright equatorial morning light, I was overwhelmed by its majesty . The Caribbean Sea stretched out before it. At its foot lay the picturesque coastal city of Santa Marta. Its lushly forested slopes rose seemingly endlessly. Only far away, in the distance, could one make out the gleaming snow-capped peaks , some reaching almost 6,000 meters .

A mild, high-quality coffee

I spent a lot of time up in the mountains , surrounded by coffee plantations, and realized I knew far less about coffee than I thought. For example, I was surprised to learn that the coffee plant is a tree and not a bush.

Even then, I realized that the next few weeks would be exciting, challenging , and educational for me. The members of the cooperative where I was able to complete my coffee placement allowed me a deep insight into their daily coffee-related activities .

I happened to arrive at the perfect time of year , as the coffee harvest was in full swing. I helped with picking, fermenting, washing, drying, and transporting the coffee. In the evenings, surrounded by the relaxing sounds of the tropical rainforest , we had time to talk. I learned that the Red Ecolsierra cooperative not only supports its members financially and organizationally, but also politically and socially.

During the civil war, the cooperative helped its members reclaim their expropriated land. This land had been exploited for years as drug plantations and was only transformed back into certified organic coffee plantations with the help of the cooperative.
For this, Red Ecolsierra won the national prize “Taking Action for Peace” in 2017.

Another remarkable achievement is the training of coffee growers' children to become coffee producers. Few young people see life high in the mountains as promising. The Red Ecolsierra aims to improve their prospects.

During my time in Santa Marta, I naturally had the opportunity to drink a lot of excellent coffee .

The coffee from the Sierra Nevada is mild , with a pronounced fruity flavor and a honey note that stands out particularly when roasted gently.

The cooperative itself roasts coffee to a highly professional standard (using a brand-new Probat roasting machine). This makes perfect sense, as the producers know their coffee best. They don't need to create a multitude of roasting profiles, but can concentrate on perfecting this one profile – for washed highland coffee from the Colombian coast.