Listening to a Vallenato playlist on shuffle as I write this. I read that this music was born in Valledupar, the capital of Cesar, located in northern Colombia. I invite you to join me on a journey of history, culture exploration and flavour time machine.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DXbUPnz12C5bA?si=fff51fbd1eab4ba6
*Vallenato originated in the 19th Century, from a blend of African, Indigenous and European traditions; it speaks volumes about what this region has endured.
Hello and welcome to my first immersive post.
(and a recipe video at the bottom of the page!)
When Ramiro, the Director of Muskox Coffee Producers, walked into Camden Coffee Roastery, I didn’t expect to want to give all of my rent money for a few bags of this green coffee. 3 months of rent... maybe more (shout out to Smail, our boss, for paying for this coffee). The passion I felt inspired me to dive deep, while I was waiting for the green coffee to arrive, sample roasting, test roasting, designing the stickers for the bag with Kladusha (who re-designed it like 4 times for me!); and I'm excited to share my findings with you.
First I heard about the village called Nabusimake, was from Ramiro, telling me about the green coffee that he collects and processes from this area. The village is 300km away from any regular roads.
It made us laugh, how even though uncertified, the coffee is organic purely through the inaccessibility of transportation. Simultaneously, everything is grown naturally by choice of the people, who are connected to the land through deep respect. My research further led me to learn that Nabusimake is referred to as “The Spiritual Capital” of the area; as I just mentioned, the people of the village live hand in hand with nature, through respect and co-relation with Mother Earth. Nabusimake, translating to “the place where the sun rises”, at one point was a refuge centre, as the indigenous groups retreated from the lower and middle slopes of Sierra Nevada. Coming back to their lands centuries later, the fight continued, as the government in the mid-20th century took control of the lands in the area. The fight for the ancestral natives, known as the Arhuaco (ar-hwa-ko), continued through the 20th century, as the government attempted to take control of these lands. The indigenous people have resisted to this day, working hard to recover the land and restore local ecology.
What blew my socks off as a passionate barista and put sparkles in my eyes;
Ramiro shared the history of Arabica making her way into the region. Back in the 18th Century, the Spanish colonisers were spreading plant seeds that were relevant to their culture, including coffee, throughout north Colombia, where Spanish boats first parked up. Over centuries, the coffee trees were growing and maturing, and as the Arhuaco returned, they began to harvest the coffee cherries, maximising the agriculturally abundant, prime lands. The agriculture of coffee has grown so much that it is currently one of the main focuses of the indigenous people of this area.
Apart from submerging into the history, I was maddened by the fact that the coffee trees in this region are like a time stamp. In modern agriculture, genetic crossing and experimental processing is very common, which brings us further and further away from the original plant and her integrity. However, here we’re talking about arabica trees of the Typica variety, with a traditional washed process - these beans are OG! I fell into the hazy dream of experiencing a cup of coffee, as humans decades ago would have! Maybe 100 years ago? Multiple Centuries? To taste the pure essence of the Typica variety felt like a must-try, I felt pumped to bring this experience to Camden.
Special credit to Oliverio Villafaña, one of the Arhuaco people, who left the community to further study coffee and elevate the wisdom of traditional cultivation and agriculture, passed from generation to generation.
As with a lot of the speciality coffee trade, by contracting bags of coffee, the roasteries play a direct part in the local economy of that region. It’s tricky to express the gratitude I feel in this moment, to be connected with Nabusimake, to be able to broaden my knowledge of the world, to have such a global experience without leaving London, is pretty trippy. I love my job. And I love you for making it this far into my article hahah
Hope you enjoy your cup of time travel as much as I enjoyed mine!
Till next time,
Nyuta and CCR Team x
Producer: Comunidad De Navusimake
Altitude: 1800-2000 masl
Region: Pueblobello Cesar, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Variety: Typica
Process: Washed
Nyuta’s Brew
Equipment: V60
Recipe:
- 20g in
- 1:16 ratio
- 60g bloom for 1 minute
- Continue up to 320ml, with a steady central pour
- Finish pouring by 2:30 min|sec
- Finish drawdown by 3 min
Picture credits: (https://thisbigroadtrip.com/nabusimake-and-the-arhuacos/ )
