your COLOMBIAN COFFEE BUYERS working for you

1. •
   

2. • tractable single source farms & estate coffee plantation
   

3. •Rainforest Certified Naturally Grown tm
   

4. •Colombian grown on Bird Friendly coffee plantations
   

5. •Shade Grown with environmental farming
   

6. •Micro Lots individual regional estate coffee
   

7. •Fair Trade pricing paid "directly to the farmer", Direct Trade tm, not brokers or importers
   

We live in Colombia, eat drink sleep "coffee" everyday, dealing with farmers, coop's , mills, to bring you the best coffee in the world, COLOMBIA ESTATE COFFEE'S.  The best we drink ourselves, then the rest we sell to you !

YOUR COLOMBIAN COFFEE connection

Serving coffee lovers since 1996!

Volcano Coffee inc, brings you Colombia coffee grown "organic" style of farming certified by the Rainforest Certified Naturally Grown program,  Estate coffee's from selected regions of Colombia.

OUR OFFERINGS AVAILABLE FOB OUR WAREHOUSE 70 KG BAG Colombia Port by ocean container to any port in Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia.

offices  Medellin, Colombia  rusty@RFCgroup.net

USA office Irvine, California  e-mail rusty@volcanocoffeeinc.com

office Sofia, Bulgaria 

office Moscow, Russia   Emiliya Lepskaia   milya@RFCgroup.net 

OUR COFFEE BROKERS OFFICE SEE WWW.GREENBEEN.COM  MORE INFORMATION ON OTHER COFFEE GROWING REGIONS OF THE WORLD.

our BRANDS

Our branding program is based on the creation of consistent flavor profiles for good Colombian core coffees to ensure that our customers have a quality, dependable product from season to season. Our staff has hours of cupping  into the original determination of each profile and hours more to ensure consistency from shipment to shipment. We trust your customers will enjoy "good cup of coffee" with our quality assurance the finest Colombian Estate Coffee available at fair prices.

         

Colombia Warbler Reserve Supremo                                                      

Colombia Volcano Coffee Supremo Hulia                                               

Colombia Volcano Coffee Supremo  Medellin 18 screen                      

Colombia Volcano Coffee Excelso Medellin                                           

Colombia Rainforest Certified Naturally Grown Excelso                       

Colombia Rainforest Certified Naturally Grown Supremo                    

Our Mission:

We travel Colombia for you purchasing directly from individual farmers, micro lots of the finest Colombia Coffee's available.  We buy coffee in parchment "dry" from the farm and then mill the coffee ourselves at our Colombia warehouse.   It is sorted by bean size to Colombia Coffee Federation standards, Supremo & Excelso.   Our Volcano Coffee label is just good Colombian Coffee. Shade Grown, Bird Friendly, Fair Trade prices paid directly to the "farmer" and grown with care to the sustainable farming environment.  We have signed with each farmer for the coffee to be grown in an "organic style" of farming supervised by the Rainforest Certified Naturally Grown program.  We give a part of every coffee purchase back to the community in support of the Rainforest Coffee Kids organization

COLOMBIA SUPREMO & EXCELSO GRADING SYSTEM:     A word on grading of Colombians. I am one who finds the Colombian grading system outdated. Other Central American and South American coffees grade mostly on altitude, cup quality and  not bean size.

Supremo and Excelso are screen sizes only, and that doesn't make sense because a larger bean does not mean better cup quality. 

Only bean size, Supremos are bigger than Excelos.  In fact, the presence of diverse bean sizes can (but not necessarily) result in better cup quality. Since we rate everything by the cup quality and all coffees are judged "blind", bean size is largely irrelevant, and doesn't enter into how we chose our Colombian coffee for our Volcano Coffee label.

Colombian coffee is highly marketed and widely available in the US. They have been largely successful at equating the name Colombian Coffee with "Good" Coffee. This is half-true. Colombian can be very balanced, with good body, brightness (acidity) and flavor. But much of it is a bit  well just boring, and most of it that you find in Supermarket bins etc. is simply a decent clean cup with almost no aftertaste. .

Where is the good Colombian coffee? WE TRAVEL ALL OF COLOMBIA to bring you the finest Colombia Coffee available, all year.   It just takes work to find it. Good Colombian is rarely sold simply as Supremo or Excelso. Colombian that has more "cup character" is usually pooled from  hundreds of farmers of one particular region and will have the regional name identifying it. Sold as a generic  for that region as Colombian and sometimes just happens to cup really nice, but that's rare, and it requires cupping each lot , each micro lot from selected individual farms we buy from to find that special one. Last year was poor in general  for buying from the Federation generic coffee program, you may get something different with each delivery from bag to bag, but the current Colombians we have are really outstanding, packed under our Volcano Coffee label, think of us as your in country Colombia  Specialty Coffee buyer.

Colombian coffee is widely known as one of the world's best coffees. However, as the world's 3rd largest exporter, a great deal of coffee must be scrutinized in order to find beans that truly live up to their national reputation. Our Colombia Supremo  packed under our VOLCANO COFFEE label  is exactly such a coffee. In the cup, it offers a classic profile: full aroma, medium body, and good acidity. Its pleasing fruit tones are balanced by an excellent caramel-like sweetness, and an overall "richness" that has made Colombian coffees famous and favored throughout the world.

For a number of years now, we had worked hard visiting many farms in Colombia to secure the finest Supremos available to sell under our "Volcano Coffee" brand.

We were continually agree that if we looked carefully, we could find some truly exceptional Excelsos. And...after many trials, we found a coffee that proved his point. We are now proud to offer Colombia Excelso packed under our Rainforest Certified Naturally Grown label.

Every year, we bring in a limited quantity of Excelsos that offer the combination of full aroma, ripe citrus top notes, creamy body and lingering sweet finish that characterize our Volcano Coffee best label.  The coffee is a great stand-alone Colombia, and with its mellow character and pleasing softness, also serves as an outstanding base for drip blends or espresso.

 

Colombia Huila

Monserrate is a community of 40 plus  families some two hours down a bumpy dirt road from La Plata. The town itself consists of a single street draped along the top of a gorgeous ridge with a commanding view of the lush green valleys on either side. At the highest point in town sits a brick-clad church and bell tower.

The coffee grown here is Caturra and Typica varietal. Each family has its own de-pulping and fermentation set up, along with raised drying screens protected from the rain by parabolic roofs of transparent plastic. The drying areas are set up on a slight incline, so that both ends of the tunnel can be opened to allow airflow across the coffee.

Since every family contributes coffee for export, each fermentation and drying process has to be done perfectly, or it could compromise the entire shipment. Happily, the whole community takes great pride in their work, and the results show very nicely in the cup--delicate floral tones balanced by jellied wine grape sweetness.

Colombia Huila Timana small-farmer 15+ Screen
Who cares about screen size? Give us cup quality any day. Remarkably clean and sweet. Grown in Timana (southern Huila, near San Agustin) by a group of 247 family farms.

Colombia Excelso Huila Pitalito 'Faisury Toro'
Faisury Toro is a small company that has mills in Pitalito (Huila) and Chinchina (Caldas). Aside from having a really cool name, they specialize in high-quality coffees from the veredas directly surrounding their mills. This one: sweet, good acidity, rich and very full-bodied.

Colombia Tierradentro Certified Organic
Sweet and bright with lovely apricot and lemon flavors. Grown in Cauca, at an elevation of 1700-2100 meters, by a group of indigenous farmers called Los Cabildos de Tierradentro.

Colombia more comments...

Colombian coffees are well balanced, medium bodied, and bright. They are also the most highly marketed coffees in the world. Everyone knows Juan Valdez. The Coffee Federation of Colombian has done an excellent job of connoting in the American public's mind that Colombian coffees are the "richest coffees in the world."

Does Colombian coffee deserve this praise? The answer is both yes and no.

Colombia has done a very nice job at bumping up the quality of its average beans and produces an above average grocery store or restaurant coffee. A lot of Colombian coffee, however, is not that truly special. On the other hand, a lot is praise-worthy. The task is to search out the exceptional among the merely decent cups.

Colombia is just starting to market and sell its coffee by region and finca, as opposed to just the "Colombian Mountain Grown" label. To be honest, I think that since Colombia was so successful at marketing the country as a whole, it was a latecomer to the micro-region vintage model of coffee marketing.

Overall, no reason to tell you to try Colombian coffees, since, if you drink coffee, you already have. But make sure not to discount Colombian coffee as the smiley face of the coffee world. Top-notch vintage coffees are there, just have to request them, instead of just saying, "Colombian coffee please" when you order coffee at your local coffee house.

A final note: Supreme and Excelso are bean size descriptions, not cupping profiles, growing altitudes, or anything else. Supremos are bigger than Excelos, but these names do not mean anything on cup, per se. Basically they are the names that the Coffee Federation came up with. Just something to keep in mind!

 

BIRD FRIENDLY FARMING & SHADE GROWN

RAINFOREST CERTIFIED NATURALLY GROWN TM  farming program

 

WHAT REALLY IS ORGANIC COFFEE?  Read what other say about the Organic Program.

USDA changed the rules in 2008, now every farm needs to be inspected "every year" not every third year, and more important is the fact of coop's, where only 10% of a coop was needed for inspections to be called Organic, now as of June 2008 every farm needs inspections, to keep the USDA NOP seal.  Inspections cost for a small farmer can be well over $5,000 a year, when many farmers make less than $15,000, getting the Organic seal for coffee, may be a thing of the past !!!

We have an another way to get YOUR COFFEE "ORGANIC" , with our Rainforest Certified Naturally Grown tm farmer program.

1. •Our Rainforest Certified, meets all the normal guidelines for growing "organic" Bird Friendly & Shade Grown
   

2. •Our farmers do not use pesticides
   

3. •Our farmers DO use organic mulch for fertilizer, coffee cherry pulp & composted mulch.
   

4. •Our farmers DO have shade trees, coffee grown on shade friendly coffee plantations
   

5. •Our farmers DO have bird friendly environments, providing habit for birds wintering in Colombia
   

6. •Our farmers DO sign a pledge to farm "organic style" protecting the environment
   

7. •Our farmers DO get PAID a fair price, "DIRECT TRADE" tm just like the Fair Trade prices "directly to the farmer" not to brokers-importers & middlemen or coop managers when the direct results are the farmer not getting any more for his coffee.
   

What the Rainforest Certified Naturally Grown tm seal means.

1. 1.We inspect every farm to make sure they meet our organic natural farming practices.  We base  our program  upon the accepted farming methods now used by USDA NOP program guidelines for organic farming, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird program for both bird friendly farming & shade grown specifications for tree canopy cover.
   

2. 2.We collect samples of leaf, soil & water at each farm, just like a Organic inspection, sending these to a national lab to make sure the farm is really  an "organic" farm. 
   

3. 3.The agreement contract we sign with each farmer is his personal pledge to assure he will follow the organic farming style on his farm, producing organic style of coffee for our clients.
   

4. 4.We charge the farmer not one penny for this certification, after all they are the one making us money by following the organic farming, we will make our money on the coffee, without the farmer paying inspectors a large sum to certify a farm.  The real organic seal from NOP system is broken, we aim to have an alternative inspection methods for our "organic clients".
   

5. 5.We teach the farmer about use of natural pesticide methods, organic mulch fertilization methods, sanitation & general organic farming with the help of our Spanish speaking "in country" team of native Colombian staff.
   

6. 6. Sustainable farming environment is our goal for every farm
   

7. 7.We donate part of our profit to help the Rainforest Coffee Kids origination providing sports equipment to local schools.
   

 

Organic mythology

Organic = No fertilizers, pesticides or other toxic chemicals and that means better quality, healthier and less impact on the environment.

Shade Grown = No chopping or burning down the Rain Forest to plant bigger crops of coffee. Coffee plants are grown where they grow naturally, under the canopy of trees.

Fair Trade = The coffee farmers are paid a fair amount for their crops. Something that most of the coffee bean brokers don't do.

 

Why do all this for what?  Read on...

Organically grown coffee does not necessarily offer any health benefits over non-organic coffee. Coffee beans are naturally protected from agro-chemicals within a thick, fleshy cherry. Any chemical residue that might be left on the bean after this cherry is removed is burned off during the roasting process.   Reprint from a national coffee magazine, un-named.  However the real truth is in the style of farming, most coffee farms are very small as we think of them, family owned & operated on a few acres, in fact in Colombia alone over 500,000 small farms make up the coffee growing farmers here. Important facts are they are folks who make a small living for their families raising coffee for you & me.  They can not really afford the "petro" chemicals of pesticides we think they may of used in the coffee production.