Why one Colombian farmer chose specialty, and the other walked away

I travel to Colombia’s Huila region to answer a question that’s puzzled me for years: if specialty coffee pays more, is better for the environment, and brews tastier cups—why don’t more farmers grow it?

 

I speak with two producers in the same region whose choices couldn’t be more different. One stakes his future on specialty. The other opts out.

 

Their decisions come down to more than passion or a hard work ethic. Instead, I uncover two  starting conditions—often invisible to us buyers—that strongly shape whether a farmer chooses specialty at all.

 

If we want to see more speciality coffee grown, we need to bring down the barriers to specialty. But first we need to understand what those barriers really are.

 

The answers might surprise you. They surprised me.

 

Please spread the word about The Science of Coffee!

Leave a 5 star rating on Spotify
Follow me on Instagram and tag me in an Instagram story
Write a review on Apple Podcasts

Discover how I make these Filter Stories episodes by subscribing to my Substack newsletter

 

Find your next favourite Colombian coffee from The Coffee Quest

 

Taste coffees from Erick Bravo’s award winning farm, Finca El Chaferote

 

Nerd out on my farm profitability estimations

 

 

Season 3 of The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organizations:

 

The Coffee Quest | BWT | TODDY | Algrano | Probat

 

Use ProfilePrint to find the coffee your customers loved last year (without a week of cupping!). Use promo code "FILTER" to get 10% off your first year of a Mini Beluga subscription. Click here to discover ProfilePrint's many uses. 

Support hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers with Fairtrade. Discover how here. 

Office coffee = easy recurring revenue. WMF’s Elevation 10 and Peak 50 do the work for you. Learn more here. 
 
"Seize the Moment", the tabletop device from DiFluid that guides your customers through their coffee as it cools. Use code FILTER and this link to get 10% off.