Elias Quilcue Apio

On the southem part of the department of Tolima, nestled in the mountains on the last corners of the municipality of Plandas we meet Elias Qilcue Apio with his family. He lives and has his farm in an area belonging to the indigenous settlement of the Paez community. He has been in coffee since 2002 with his farm El Diviso and around 2019 is where he switched to specialty coffee motivated by a local association and leamed through workshops. With this change towards quality his quality of live has improved as well as improving his infrastructure to produce better quality coffee. At his farm he also has produce for local consumption, all with organic production, respecting the environment. During his spare time, he weaves and makes some artisanal objects. He is really proud of his farm: the flora, fauna, water resources and surrounding green mountains. Elias feels proud of his heritage and tells the story of when his grandparents, indigenous medics, leaved in his farm and helped treating people with natural remedies.

The way he is currently processing his coffee, starts with a selection of the ripe cherries, followed by an in-cherry fermentation from 20 to 24 hours in bags. Then, the cherries are floated to take out the less dense and any foreign material such as leafs or branches. Afterwards the cherries are pulped without water and the beans left to ferment in black bags from 100 to 120 hours, subsequently washed twice. As per the drying, it is done is parabolic covered patios from 20 to 25 hours depending on the climate.