This is it. I got to go to Colombia and spent a couple days out at El Fenix, it was fucking incredible. The project is fantastic, the people are fantastic, the coffee is fantastic. We spent the whole time immersed in coffee. Miguel and his family are beautiful and lovely to the highest degree. It was probably the highlight of my coffee career so far... to be somewhere so beautiful and feel justified in going there.
This is the kind of coffee you only really get your hands on by going out to see the farm I reckon. We walked around the trees talking for ages, and me and Jess just kept banging on about how much we love Pink Bourbon, not just for flavour but also because the trees are cute and much easier to move between than most of the other varieties grown there - wush wush is a bitch. So Miguel offered us a table with a load of Pink Bourbon experimental processes, this is one of those do it once or twice and realise it's a chore things to produce.
Washed-Natural
This is trial process from Miguel Fajardo.
Cherries ferment for 24hours in water, then using a submergible pump they get transferred between carts. The pump is pretty aggressive so it pulps some of the fruit and passes a shitload of water through everything and mixes everything heavily, then the mix of pulped and intact cherries ferments for a further 72hours before being laid out to dry.
The idea is increased complexity, and a body that's somewhere between the traditional processes. It totally works!
The Farm: El Fénix
El Fénix serves as Raw Material’s central hub in Colombia — more than just an office, it was developed with a long-term vision in mind. The site brings together three distinct but interconnected components: a rare-variety organic coffee farm, a post-harvest processing lab, and a community wet mill. These elements function together to support innovation in coffee production, processing, and trade.
Located in Calarcá, in the eastern municipality of Quindío, Colombia, El Fénix is ideally situated facing the Cauca Valley and the central mountain range. Its microclimate offers optimal conditions for coffee growing: strong sunlight reflected off the valley, an average annual rainfall of 2,275mm, and abundant freshwater from natural spring falls. This setting supports the growth of rare and experimental coffee varieties under organic farming conditions.
As a working farm and research space, El Fénix enables Raw Material to carry out selective breeding programs, experiment with new post-harvest processing techniques, and adapt farming practices to organic production. It also serves as a venue for hosting farm management and cupping courses for producers and roasters, all while building stronger relationships across the value chain.
Community Wet Mill
In addition to coffee production and research, El Fénix is home to a growing community wet mill — a collaborative infrastructure project initiated and crowdfunded with support from Raw Material. The goal is to offer smallholder producers in the surrounding area greater control over both quality and income.
The model allows Raw Material to purchase coffee in cherry form rather than parchment, enabling complete oversight of the post-harvest process to ensure consistency and maximize quality. Producers benefit not only from improved quality outcomes but also from a transparent, two-part payment system designed to stabilize cash flow.
The first payment is made when cherries are delivered — up to six weeks earlier than traditional parchment payments — at a fixed rate equivalent to COP 1,000,000 per carga of parchment. A second payment is made after export, based on the final price roasters pay. If the export price exceeds the benchmark, that added value is passed directly to the producers.
This system provides a meaningful step toward equity in the coffee value chain and demonstrates Raw Material’s commitment to delivering long-term, community-driven development through trade.
