Toldopamba is a true family operation. Carlos, the son of coffee farmers, has made a career working with growers around Nariño, helping them improve quality and connect with specialty buyers. His wife, Angela, runs their quality lab, where she roasts and cups hundreds of samples each season, and also operates their small on-farm roastery: Kawsay, which sells high-quality coffee locally. Carlos’ mother greets growers delivering coffee to their purchasing station and oversees physical analysis, while his father helps coordinate logistics and transportation.

You can feel the care in this family business—for one another and for the work they do—and the network of growers they collaborate with. Many are longtime friends and neighbors who, together, have built a business model that serves them far better than what was previously available.

In addition to their work with producers, Toldopamba’s team is deeply committed to experimentation, often using processing as a tool to unlock quality in coffees that might otherwise be overlooked.

Rather than viewing that as a limitation, Toldopamba saw an opportunity. They began naturally processing their Castillo to see if the flavor could be improved through careful fermentation and drying. The first trials were immediately promising, and each season they’ve continued to refine the process. This year marked a major leap forward with the introduction of a new optical cherry sorter, which scans each cherry and removes any that aren’t perfectly ripe. Afterward, the selected cherries are hand-sorted once more, then laid in thin layers on shaded raised beds, where they’re turned regularly over the course of two weeks to ensure slow, even drying.

In a traditional washed process, the coffee would ferment in a tank (sometimes with water, but often without) until environmental yeasts and bacteria soften the mucilage, which is then washed away. However, in the honey process, the fermentation step is skipped, and the mucilage-laden, depulped coffee goes directly to raised beds for drying. This method produces a cup distinct from its washed counterparts, often softening the bright, citrusy flavors typical of Ethiopia while expressing a fuller body.

The result is a coffee that tastes nothing like what Castillo is “supposed” to be. Through precision and patience, Toldopamba has transformed a high-yield workhorse variety into a vibrant, expressive GEM.