The next day we headed out into the hills just over an hours drive from the town. It was here we visited our first coffee farm of the trip that belonged to William Cruz and his family. William is one of the younger members of the producer group in El carmen de Acevedo. He welcomed us in with open arms and introduced to the extended family.

It was then that I met Nicolas Leyton, one of the producers who we have just bought 120kg of Pacamara coffee from. I had bought a bag I had roasted just before leaving for the trip along to give him. His reaction as I gave him the finished product that had come full circle was absolutely priceless. It's not often that producers like this get to see the finished product so it was a great privilege to be able to bring this back to the area it was grown.

Alexandra, another member of the El Carmen group had suggested that as I bought the coffee in I should be the one to brew it for everyone to try! No pressure, just 20 odd producers gathered around watching.

After a tour of his farm where we saw the many varieties being grown and how it was all processed we headed down to the local village where El Carmen have a purpose built cupping lab. Everyone took part in the cupping including many of the children. We even had a full presentation and brew made for us by 7 year old Mafe using coffee from her families farm ‘La Finca X’.

Along with Miguel and Matt from Raw Material, Juan Phillipe was also with us for the next part of the trip. He runs the dry mill in Pitalito where all of El Carmens coffee comes to be milled and bagged up. He gave us a really insightful tour of the dry mill explaining the ins and outs of every aspect of the operation. The building was huge with pipes in every direction. Coffee farmers come here to sell their parchment in bulk. Juan and his team grade the coffee to decide a fair price for the seller. They then process the coffee to get rid of the parchment and load it into sacks ready for export. Our coffee from Nicolas Leyton would have also been processed here ready to export to us here in Cornwall!