Women’s Co-op

Speciality coffee produced by farms managed, run and owned 100% by Women

CARAMEL / SOFT CANDY / STICKY RAISIN / COOKED APPLE  

• Country – Colombia
• Region – El Tambo / Cauca
• Process – Washed
• Variety – Castillo/Colombia
• Elevation – 1400-2000masl
• Harvested – May-August

We introduced our ‘International Women’s Co-Operative Farmers’ label in 2017 to specifically champion specialty grade coffee sourced through a thriving network of coffee farms owned, managed and ran by women. Why this matters has many complex social and cultural implications unique to each region but at the heart of each organisation is the common goal to better the lives and empower women in their respective societies.

For December 2025 we are proud offer very special lots from the ‘Women ASMUCAFE’ collective in El Tambo which consists of just 5 smallhold farmers in the highlands of Cacau, one of Colombia’s most fertile coffee growing regions. The collective describes their binding principles and work together as being “determined by shared values such as responsibility, honesty, commitment, respect and solidarity”. A price premium is added to this coffee at source which is used for inward investment supporting project development and collective empowerment within the association.

The coffee, all of which is of Castillo or Colombia variety, is picked as purple (Castillo) or bright red (Colombia) cherry, and undergoes an unusual “double” fermentation process, as the women describe it: First, the cherries are left in the loading hoppers for 14 hours, then they are de-pulped in the afternoons and evening hours and placed into traditional open fermentation tanks for another 10 hours before being washed three to four times prior to being dried.