Forest Coffee | El Vergel | Colombia

I was fortunate enough to meet Shady & Elias (proprietors of Forest Green and El Vergel) a few years ago at the Conduit in London, while in preparation for a national competition.  Getting to sit down with them and chat through all things coffee felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity. The two had unrivalled passion and expertise, which made me hungry to work with them in a commercial capacity once Harmony began. 

About Forest Coffee

Forest Coffee was born out of a desire to unite the coffee producing community in Colombia. They offer a series of Green coffee categories, each of which offer the customer different degrees of quality and social impact:

1. Community. These coffees highlight the Condor projects in Colima and Huila, with the aim of maximising social impact, enhancing the coffee quality produced and uplifting the communities involved in the production. This is where we source our Really Good Decaf Coffee from El Vergel.

2. Microlots. This is focussing on small batch production. This category of production highlights unique profiles from individuals or groups. The aim of this particular category is to produce exceptional cup quality and highlight the unique story of each cup. 

3. Reserve. This is a showcase of one-of-a-kind coffees with exceptional profiles. This category places luxury, high end flavour above all - where absolute quality is paramount. 

4. Innovation. This category is dedicated to the development of green coffee, experimenting with new harvesting methods and new ways to process. Forest Green is famed for their innovation series success and their trailblazing efforts to popularise Koji inoculations, thanks to the help of Christopher Feran (you can read his blog here)  and Kaapo Paavol. We have also featured Koji inoculated coffees from El Vergel a few times in our Coffee lineup.

5. Competition. A rigorously curated lineup of seriously world-class coffees intended to stand out on the global stage. I was fortunate enough myself to get hold of some of these coffees for my own national competition - read more that here - my experience with El Vergel's competition series made me seriously rethink the generally accepted industry position that Panama is the best origin for Gesha, and inspired my comments made during my interview with Perfect Daily Grind.

Working with El Vergel and Forest Coffee has made me realise the importance of community within coffee and the social benefits that can be passed along through the coffee supply chain. We hope to have a long and continued partnership, bringing exceptional coffees to York. With the help of our sourcing partner and UK Barista Champion 2024, Roosa Jalonen, we've committed to an awesome line up for the coming year, that will get you excited to learn more and taste some awesome coffees. 

Learn more about our other Green Coffee Partners.