One of the most special coffees we have at Devoción isn’t unique for its rare varietals, advanced processing techniques, extreme high altitude farms or many of the other aspects that make a unique cup. Instead, our Cafe Afro is special because of the community in which it is grown. Cafe Afro comes from a small Afro Colombian community in Guamal that has vast coffee forests growing amidst dense jungle, as it has been doing for centuries.

Above: Workers pick through dense vegetation to reach the coffee cherries.

Devoción first discovered the wild coffee forest two years ago on a trip to the area. The people in the community had no idea that coffee was growing in a small, forested area, and were not cultivating the land in any way. Coffee cherries were falling from the branches and rotting on the ground, until finally we began an initiative in the community to increase their knowledge on how to farm, pick and process the coffee.

Above: Washed coffee beans dry on the front porch of a neighborhood home.

Below: The coffee plants are almost indistinguishable from the surrounding forest.

Last month we took a camera crew to the village to film a commercial for a cultural partnership we were doing with the Colombian government as part of a larger project to enhance and enrich the country’s Afro Colombian communities. Members of the community, most notably 90 year old Doña Tulia, showed us around town, even walking up and down the slopes and into the forests.

Above: Doña Tulia showing us around the mountainside.

Below: A film crew shoots a portrait of Doña Moreno, the town’s matriarch.

They told us the story of the village and its conception as a liberated slave community. The matriarch of the town, Doña Moreno, was a rich Spanish landowner. Before her death, she agreed to give all the slaves their freedom, under one condition: they all take her last name. This strange request was gladly heeded, but now everyone in the town has the last name Moreno, resulting in the peculiar situation that someone’s name could be Alejandro Moreno Moreno Moreno Moreno, et al.

Above: A portrait of El Taita Cubadunga Juan Moreno -- the first leader of the community after the liberation of the slaves, as well as a coffee farmer.

Below: The two oldest members of the community: 96 and 92.

All in all, the Pink and Orange Borbon grown in the community provides a great cup of coffee, especially when fresh, but it’s not one of our brightest, boldest or most complex single estates. Instead, it’s a coffee that represents a community that is vital to Colombia’s culture, its history, its society and its future. Providing coffee knowledge and an additional source of income to the community in Guamal is one of the brightest spots and proudest achievements for us as a company.

Above: Orange Borbon; Below: Pink Borbon. Although Cafe Afro is not currently available in the United States, it is sold in Colombia and may soon be available in the U.S.