Converting the whole village
What would happen if we did something different with our coffee? wondered Juan Pablo just when his father, Efraín, was about to sell the estate. What would happen if I moved back to the field? thought Juan Pablo who was then living in the city, like the rest of his brothers. Father and son started processing and roasting their own coffee, selling it locally. In 2014, Lennart met Juan Pablo through a mutual friend. They hit it off immediately and a partnership was born. In the first year, we helped them obtain hulling equipment and an export license so they could sell this coffee straight to us.
Less than two years later, they became independent exporters, created raised beds, helped their friends of the Muñoz family process and export their crop, and already seven groups of field baristas have helped to experiment with cascara, honey, natural, anaerobic processing, and much, much more. Since 2016 the washed crop was fermented, a great tweak that has made the coffee's sweetness more layered. In 2017 we began experimenting and upgrading with greater pace and in direct cooperation with roasters. 2018 brought about the first structural fermentation timing experiments, while in 2019 many of the farmers have spent their premiums on not just raised beds but raised drying “drawers” for maximum space efficiency. 2020 and 2021 saw the establishment of a training center for regenerative transition for any farmer who is interested. In 2022 the processing craziness continued and plans to start cacao production arose.
Today, not a farmer in the village of Génova is untouched by the influence of the regenerative, organic and direct trade messages that the Argote project has been sending out. With a mentality and a network like theirs, the sky truly is the limit.
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Many in the coffee world have come across the name “Nariño” at some point, perhaps most famously from the fact that Starbucks sells it as a single origin offer. Nowadays there isn’t a village in the mountains of Nariño that doesn’t have sign of a (supposed) campaign running from some big coffee companies like Starbucks and Nespresso. But ever since the rise of the Third Wave and direct trade relationships, other regions such as Huila and Medellín have stolen some of Nariño’s thunder. Apart from a few notable exceptions like the efforts of the Borderlands Coffee Project to promote the region to American direct traders, the old coffee buying model still provides most of the region’s sustainable income.
Take it from us, though: Nariño is still one of the main stars of Third Wave Colombian coffee and an incredible coffee origin. Rainfall, temperature, solar radiation, organic matter in the soil, and even wind conditions are all perfectly fit to entice the coffee shrub to make the best cherries possible.
Within Nariño, the altitude at which the village of Colón is situated is perhaps this coffee’s most unique feature: On the one hand, the shape of the mountains here allows the warm, moist winds from the valley to blow upwards at night, which makes coffee cultivation here viable at altitudes that elsewhere would kill the fragile shrubs. On the other hand, cold trade winds from the south find their way to this region. This interchange of cold and warm influence makes temperatures here fluctuate between 7 and 30 degrees Celsius, forcing the coffee to hold on to and trigger the production of more sugars, the solubles responsible for the acidity of the coffee. These dreamlike conditions are unlike we’ve ever seen anywhere in the world, and are what gives this coffee its beautiful acidities, smooth mouthfeel, and pronounced aromas.
Juan Pablo, our partner and second son of the Argote family, knew there was more to be gained from Nariño’s unique coffee. He grew up in the village of Colón Genova and has been working with coffee since he was a child. He now roasts coffee under his brand “Sol del Venado” to the local market for extra income but understood that his family’s coffee had the potential to be sold green to foreign buyers - if only he could find them...
As with most of This Side Up’s partners, this one came to us serendipitously through an introduction from a friend of both Lennart and Juan Pablo. On an exploratory trip to Colombia in 2014 with friend and serial entrepreneur Fraser Doherty, we decided to have one last stop in Nariño to meet Juan Pablo and fellow coffee grower Hernando Gutierrez. We cupped several coffees and were blown away by how they compared to everything else we tasted on our trip. Of these coffees, Juan Pablo’s took a slight lead over the others, so we were anxious to see where it was grown.
After a six-hour drive, we arrived in the secluded village of Colón Genova, a 100-year old coffee-growing settlement on the border of the departments of Nariño and Cauca. The next days we spent in the family house and learned with how much care the entire family treated picking, sorting, and processing of the coffee. True to Colombian hospitality standards, we too were treated as family and showed around the farm and village by Juan Pablo and his father Efrain. We met other growers and talked about the needs of the community. We learned that Colón was largely left untouched by development programs, save the standard training programs of the FNC.
The example of Colón Genova shows just how greatly one can impact a community by buying coffee straight from smallholder farms. We calculated that if five containers of the village's specialty coffee could be sold through direct channels, there would be enough money to provide adequate food supplies, health care, and education for everyone there. It didn’t take long before we started discussing how we could work together to reach these goals in the years to come. The first step was to upgrade their processing standards and export their 2015 crop to Europe.
When we left Nariño, a partnership was born - and we have been in touch with Juan Pablo at least weekly ever since to talk about quality upgrading, export licensing, and a thousand other things. In May 2015, we financed 50% of the hulling machine that has allowed full processing to be in the hands of the Argote family, and in the autumn months we worked out all the bureaucratic details of how to export this coffee with the help of Hernando.
The coffee has now arrived and surpasses all expectations: it is even more floral and bright than what we cupped. It is safe to say that this is the best bet This Side Up has ever made. The coffee is now almost sold out and we are preparing for the new harvest. Juan Pablo has been taking specialty coffee growing/cupping courses and decided that this year's premium will go towards building raised beds instead of the patio they now use, as well as upgrading all washing processes to 1) allow fewer defects to create a cleaner cup, and 2) be able to efficiently process more of the village's coffee - eventually even all of it. In Juan Pablo's own words in a Facebook chat: "my goal is not to make myself rich but to share the profits of our quality with as many growers as we can. It´s my dream that one day we can make all of Genova´s growers participate in the exportation process and have a unique quality standard."
It's our dream to be working with someone who thinks like this!
Every one of our 35 kg bags from Argote shows the name of the farmer. However many lots in the Argote community taste very similar - so we grouped them into three “Lines” to help you choose the right one for yourself.
Line 1: Púlpito
Our Pulpito lot is an all-round typical chocolaty Colombian coffee with medium body and malic acidity.
A great “entrance” to Colombian flavours and great for espresso.
The 2023-2024 Púlpito line is provided by these farmers.
Leonardo (2,2 hectares, 8.000 trees)
Leo is Efrain Lasso’s cousin and their neighbour. He is 67 years old. He has three daughters but none of them live in Genova anymore. He’s been farming coffee for more than 30 years. He is the first farmer to join the Argote project, and one of the few other farmers in the project who has his own washing station, but it was in very bad shape. However, he is very adamant about improving quality and always asks Juan Pablo and Efrain about how to upgrade his processing setup. With the premiums over the last years, he rebuilt his concrete washing tanks, added tiles for hygiene and built his own raised beds.
LEO
Muñoz
2,2 hectares
8.000 trees
Fredi
Muñoz
0,75 hectare
3.500 trees
Marcel (2,1 hectare, 10000 trees)
Marcel belongs to the younger generation of Argote farmers in this district. He is very active in the coffee scene in Genova. Last year he organized the Genova specialty coffee contest and had an overwhelming response of a 100 farmers submitting their coffees for the contest. Last summer he also got his direct roaster relationship and is eager to understand the needs, demands of the specialty market as well as cater to it. He is experimenting with different coffee species, including laurina (low in caffeine), pink bourbon. He runs a nursery and also supports Argote farmers in planting alternate varieties. He intercrops his coffees with lulo (fruit tree) which provides extra income year around.
Marcel
Ordoñez
2.1 hectares
10.000 trees
Carmela (3,2 hectares, 8.000 trees)
Carmela is a cousin of Juan Pablo’s grandmother. She is 82 years old and has been a widow for 30 years. She has two sons, one of them works in Cali, the other one moved back to Genova after living in Cali to help her on the farm. Her son is in charge of the washing process, she does the sorting. They hire a picker every season as they do not have enough family to help them. Efrain knew that they had very good soil and asked them if they wanted to change some practices to become a member of the Argote project. They were very receptive and had their first direct export in 2019. Carmela passed away last year unexpectedly during a hospital visit. In loving memory of Carmela, bags will continue to be sold under her name this harvest year.
Carmela
Muñoz
3,2 hectares
8.000 trees
Eider (0,5 hectare, 1.900 trees)
Eider is 32 years old and is the cousin of Hugo, Freddy and Ibeth. He has three brothers and two sisters. When their parents died, they gave all their children 1/5 of their coffee land, but he alone takes care of all of it. His sisters work in Cali and Bogota and his brothers live with him in the house. His brothers help the Lasso Argote family with picking, sorting, hulling and importantly, lifting all the bags into the container annually. Only one of his brothers, John, is really enthusiastic about coffee farming and has been helping Efrain to experiment with organic compost and makes his own cascara. Eider is married and has one daughter.
Eider
Muñoz
0,5 hectare
1.900 trees
Alvaro (2000 trees)
Alvaro Cerón
2000 trees
Line 2: Naranja
The Naranja lot is our middle-of-the-line lot: it exhibits recognisable Nariño flavours, chocolate,
some dried fruits and citric acidity. Crisp and clean medium-bodied espresso or thick filter.
The 2023-2024 Naranja line is provided by these farmers.
Jesus (2,2 hectares, 10.000 trees)
Jesus has been a coffee farmer all of his life. He came from a family of farmers and lives with his mother, wife and brother. They all work together to maintain the coffee fields and process the coffee at their own small mill. He has been selling coffee to the FNC for most of his life but after meeting Juan Pablo, found out that his coffee is of exceptional quality. This is mainly due to his meticulous way of working. He has become very interested in improving quality, even more now that his first direct export received first prize in our cupping competition. He made almost identical drying beds to those at Argote and has started making high quality washed cascara as well. He is healthy again after surviving cancer and chemotherapy some years ago, making his feat of high quality production even more astounding.
Jesús
CeRóN
2,2 hectares
10.000 trees
Maria (2 hectares, 5.000 trees)
Maria is 78 years old and Juan Pablo’s aunt. Because her husband became injured during a car crash, she takes care of the family farm mainly by herself. The older members of the Argote family all only had secondary education and have been farming all their lives. In her coffee fields, she does most of the picking, processing and sorting herself, but sometimes she hires a worker because of her age. This is relatively is expensive but more manageable now because of the higher prices she receives from Argote Specialty Coffee. She also used her premium to build her own raised drying beds.
MaRIA
ArGOTE
2 hectares
5.000 trees
Asencio (1,1 hectares, 5.000 trees)
Asencio is a friend of Juan Pablo, he’s 44 years old. He inherited his father’s coffee land after his health took a turn for the worse. Asencio’s other job is in Genova’s hospital, he works as a pharmacist. He does all the coffee processing himself: washing, depulping, drying. For the picking, because of his other job, he hires a picker. He is married to one of Leo’s daughters who has a daughter who they provide university tuition for. Together, they have their own daughter of 4 years old.
ASENcIO
Muñoz
1,1 hectares
5.000 trees
Gerardo (1,5 hectares 6000 trees)
GeRARDO
Muñoz
1,5 hectares
6.000 trees
Benedo (3000 trees)
benedo lópez
3000 trees
Jesus Alberto (400 trees)
Jesús Alberto Cerón
400 trees
Line 3: Morado
Morado is our high end lot. Juicy, clean and good complexity and vibrant acidity.
This is a coffee that deserves to be roasted lighter as it “unpacks” ever more layers as it cools.
The 2023-2024 Morado line is provided by these farmers..
sandro
CERÓN
bernardo
Cerón
600 trees
Yuli Urbano
These are the 2023-2024 single farmer lots.
Some farmers’ coffees do not fit neatly into the three lines, usually because of different processing like natural or anaerobic experimentation,
but sometimes just because of excellence in processing.
Adiela (3 hectares, 10.000 trees)
Adiela is 83 years old and Juan Pablo’s aunt. She has been a widow for over 30 years and has three daughters, two of them are school teachers in Génova. The other one works in Bogota. She’s a very hardworking woman, she is always around the house and farm and lives to take care of her coffee trees, platanes, chickens and daily cows. All the milk and eggs that the Lasso Argote household consumes come from her. Her grandson comes to help her during the harvest and has become interested to take over her coffee farm in due time, Juan Pablo is working to include him into the project as well.
ADIELA
ARGOTE
3 hectares
10.000 trees
Ibeth
Muñoz
1 hectare
3.500 trees
Jhon (3 hectares, 700 trees)
Jhon is one of the youngest farmers in the Argote ensemble. He has been actively working in Argote since 2018. He spends most of his time helping his family grow coffee, and preparing the organic fertilizers. He himself is also shifting to fully organic in the little piece of land he owns and where he recently started planting his own coffee. Last year he attended a regenerative course gifted by Antoine from Kaffa Roastery in France along with Juan Pablo’s sister in Cali. This course was given by the famous regenerative Jairo Restrepo Rivera of “La Mierda de Vaca”. He is eager to understand the demands of the Specialty market and is interested to innovate on different coffee processing methods.
JHON
Muñoz
3 hectares
700 trees
Jhoan (0.25 hectares, 500 trees)
Jhoan lives with his mother and he is 21 years old. He has a very small coffee plot (500 trees only) and has two other jobs: he works as a roaster in the local school and is a mechanic for the local television tower. His coffee is of exceptional quality as his knowledge of specialty processing is very high, he constantly educates himself. He is the only one in the Argote project who does all the processing completely by himself. He is one of the people who we believe will become an important part of the future of the Argote project in terms of cupping and quality control. His coffee grows at 2,050 meters above sea level.
JHOAN
CERÓN
0,25 hectares
500 trees
Mauricio (1.2 hectares, 6000 trees)
Mauricio is also part of the Argote family, grew up amongst coffee, and as a young producer is now working on land that also grows around 6,000 other species of trees! Father of two, he is the first member of the Bolaño family to become a member of the Argote Project. We definitely hope to see this amazing circle of coffee growers continue its expansion in years to come!
MAURICIO
BOLAÑOS
1,2 hectares
6.000 trees
THIS SIDE UP VALUE CHAIN
Our Colombia value chain is quite unique. It is not often that you see a smallholder coffee farm controlling and owning all origin activities of the value chain. Our investment in a hulling machine and Juan Pablo's entrepreneurial spirit are the main reasons for this structure.
TRACEABILITY
You can find all the signed contracts and shipping documents that we made with Argote since 2021 below (Google Drive).
Key ACHIEVEMENTS
2015: Used our premium to finance 50% of a new hulling machine to allow direct export, first-ever export of Argote family's coffee, obtained independent exporter license.
2016: built covered and raised drying beds, from TSU premium installed fermentation tanks, hosted first-ever Field Barista Project, created first honey and natural tests, exported the first cascara, helped Muñoz Diaz family process and export their micro lot.
2017: created individual farmer lots and rewarded the best ones with a $1 p/kg premium; initiated first organic fertilizer trials; created three experimental fermentation lots (30, 42, and 66 hours) in cooperation with Jelle van Rossum. Juan Pablo travelled to Holland to meet his clients for the first time.
2018: 3 more farmers trained and added to the producer base. Nursery created and SL28 planted. First direct export to a roaster. Names of all producers printed on the bags. Cascara quality control protocols developed.
2019: Anaerobic processes from previous season tested, roasting equipment bought at the farm, fermentation times structurally adapted, first large natural lots created, around 40% of the harvest sold directly to and in cooperation with roasters. Rebuilt part of the drying setup in a drawer form, inspired by a local monastery that also processes coffee.
2020: Construction started on a regenerative training center in the center of Génova for farmers to learn about composting, intercropping, mulching, microbial fertilisers, as means towards becoming independent of industrial inputs..
2021: Death of Efrain, Juan Pablo’s father and esteemed leader in the village. Juan Pablo, Juan Pablo’s sister and Jésus stepped in his footsteps and help create continuity after the passing of such a trusted figure in the Argote project.
2022: Regenerative Training center in full use, Juan Pablo followed fermentation courses to create even quirkier experiments tailor-made to high end specialty roasters’ needs. First Field Barista Project since 2019 and largest ever.
2023: Regenerative premium used to invite the world famous Colombian regenerative guru and founder of "La Mierda de Vaca” to Génova for a course on composting and creating fertilisers using yeasts, bacteria and other home-made cultures.
CULTIVARS
Castillo, Caturra, some Catuaí
in nursery: SL28
Elevation
1,950 - 2,800 meters
NOTABLE
Very first specialty coffee to come out of Colón Genova in Nariño. Production, harvest, wet- and dry-milling are all done by the Argote family. Produced without pesticides, the Argote family inspects all coffee trees visually for signs of leaf rust. Transition to regenerative agroforestry on its way. Actively creating a village of specialty coffee producers.
PROCESSINg
Fully washed: hand-picked, de-pulped, washed with mountain water, fermented for 18-24 hours, sun-dried on concrete patios and on raised “drawers” with high airflow for about 2 weeks, manually sorted at the farm in four separate rounds, hulled and bagged at the Argote family farm.
Natural: Once the coffee is picked it is put it on the patio to dry in thin layers, it is turned regularly. It is covered at night or when it's raining. If the weather is good it will be ready in 4-6 weeks, otherwise it could take more than 8 weeks, drastically reducing the space available for other coffees.
Cupping notes
Browse through our Tastify Archives on Google Drive.
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The price you pay for Argote coffees washed and natural p/kg. We agreed on this price directly with the farmers, disregarding the volatile US Coffee C price.
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Juan Pablo and rest of the farmers in the Argote ensemble earn the same farm gate price per kg of parchment. All washed and natural coffees have a set price that is been agreed upon between TSU and Argote. Farmers earn a premium farm gate for special processes. All the farmers earn the same quality bonus for producing specialty grade coffee. 80% of the total FOB paid by TSU goes to farm gate. The parchment prices for special processes are as follows :
Jhoan Esteban Céron Alcoholic:
€ 9,65
John Munoz Alcoholic : € 9,65
Jesús Cerón Honey Late Harvest :
€ 7,53Argote and friends Cascara Boxes: € 7,06
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Argote buys parchment from their farmers and incurs the cost to mill, sort the coffees to specialty grade. Other costs borne by Argote include printing and packing grain pro bags, exporter charges for sorting, shipping the coffees to the Netherlands. The margins on the different processes are as follows :
Johan Esteban Cerón Alcoholic :
€ 1,70
Ibeth Muñoz Alcoholic : € 4,28
Marcel Ordoñez washed pink bourbon :€ 4,28Jesús Cerón Honey Late Harvest :
€ 1,80Juan Pablo Double : € 2,68
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International shipping from port of Buenaventura, Colombia to Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is inclusive of customs, insurance and warehousing costs.
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Average financing cost owed to (mostly social) lenders. This ensures immediate payment to the farmers when the coffee leaves the farm or port.
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A standard TSU premium on all coffees designated exclusively to accelerate farmers’ own regenerative agriculture projects.
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This Side Up compensation for spending time and resources importing this coffee. Our work includes year-round contact with producers, managing export, shipping, import, warehousing, grading, sampling, finding and keeping roasting partners for Argote. € 1,65 is This Side Up’s Model 1 markup. For a full overview of our modular margin construction, see the Trade Models page.
Our QC’s Flavour impressions
Maria Argote Washed 2023-2024
Roasting Advice
We noticed in previous years that TSU Washed 1 wasn’t developing the beans as fully as possible so we tried Christopher Feran’s High Alt itude 1800m profile which gives fantastic results. We actually adapted our standard Washed profile to have a lower drop temperature (145 degrees Celsius) and a few more seconds total roast time so you can use both - they now develop acidities in these dense beans beyond citric into smooth malic flavours, allowing the chocolate body and layered sweetness to develop adequately. Cut the roast short if DTR exceeds 23%.
PHOTO GALLERY
You may use these images freely to promote Argote among your customers.
CONTACT Juan Pablo LAsso Argote
Juan Pablo Lasso Argote is our close friend. He was responsible for making his family's direct export possible and is active on social media. Next to his native Spanish, he is fluent in English and speaks some French.
CONTACT Juan Pablo Lasso Argote
EMAIL jupalasso@hotmail.com
TEL +57 3002199249
Colón Génova - Nariño, Colombia