Maria Elsi Chavez’s farms Finca El Placer y El Arrayan lay a ridge in the deep Andes mountains of the Colombia's Nariño department. Their high altitude and tropical proximity to the equator leads to strong, warm sunlight during the day. At night, the areas topography seemingly holds the daylight’s heat deep in its river valleys. This warmth expresses itself in the coffees big sugars and sweet fruit notes.
Maria Elsi hand planted each tree of the 4,000 found on each plot. She exudes a quiet and admirable confidence. These qualities appear in her coffee. She consistently delivers high quality caturra microlots like this one.
During the harvest season, Maria Elsi supervises and is hands on in the cherry collection. As the cherry comes in from the field, she begins the post-harvest processing. She de-pulps and ferments the coffee for 12 to 14 hours. From her experience, Maria Elsi knows that coffee in Buesaco needs to dry in two stages due to the areas high humidity: First for just three hours on a patio and then for four days on raised beds.
Marias careful tending of her coffee and observant knowledge of her region lead to some of the best coffees of the area. The resulting cup is sweet and fruity, balanced with refreshing citrus acidity. In the cup we taste ripe damson plum, warm butterscotch sweetness, and makrut lime juice.
Green Price
$4.82
Green cost, milling, transport, taxes and exporting fees.
Transport
$0.70
Importing fees and transport from the farm to Chicago, Illinois.
Our Cost of Production
$6.00
Labor, Rent, Health Insurance, Paid Time Off
Metric
$10.52
Per 10.5oz bag of coffee
Read The Source Code to learn more about price transparency in the coffee industry.
Colombia Maria Elsi Chavez
Nariño, Colombia
- Producer Maria Elsi Chavez
- Elevation 1900 MASL
- Process Washed
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Quality
Quality means buying high quality coffees from established producers around the world.
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Traceability
Traceability gives recognition to the producers and validates where the coffee is grown, picked, and processed.
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Transparency
We endeavor to contextualize the importance of a fair and balanced trade through the prices we pay.
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Paying More
As an Independent Specialty Coffee Roaster, we always pay well above the C-Market based on two factors; the quality of coffee and the cost of production.
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Fair Wage
A fair wage begins with paying higher premiums to the coffee producer in tandem with providing competitive wages and benefits for our staff here at Metric.