About Familia Penna

The farm of the Penna brothers occupies a uniquely privileged geographical position in an area with a long and complex history.

Agua Blanca community is located in the Pedregal district in Colombia’s Inzá region. Because it lies in the middle of snow-capped Huila and the Purace volcano, its lands are fertile with abundant forests.

The Inzá area is part of the national archaeological park called Tierradentro. This park is known worldwide for having the largest concentration of monumental underground tombs from the pre-Hispanic era. Inhabited by indigenous agricultural societies from 600 to 900 BC, the area was invaded by the Spanish in the 16th century. The original inhabitants of the area were displaced, but other indigenous groups—Paeces, Pijaos, Yalcones and Timanaes—put aside their own disputes and united to face the conquerors. Now, the Paece populations that inhabit the region claim its continuity and do not forget their ancestral customs.

Over the years, this entire area became a large coffee growing area where community members and day laborers work during the harvest season while each family maintains their own farm throughout the year.

Community members or day laborers are hired during the harvest season, while the Penna brothers maintain their own farms throughout the year. Cherry is processed for defects, depulped and dried on-site. Parchment coffee is loaded onto a mule for transport or driven to the nearest dry mill.

When coffee does not require immediate attention, Penna brothers focus on growing food for their families, improving the construction of their processing areas or homes. Growing coffee is a family tradition and is one of the most exported agricultural crops next to cut flowers in Colombia.

Processing is standardized across the region in true smallholder Colombia fashion – great focus on ripe cherry selection, manual depulping of coffee beans from their cherries, 12-24 hour fermentation, washing in clean, tiled tanks and drying on raised parabolic beds to protect from the elements. These coffees don’t leave the grainpro until the moment they are dry milled, and they go into fresh bags immediately after. Producers re-use the storage bags again for fresh parchment.

In this iconic area where tradition and ancestral knowledge coexist with new modernization trends, the natural result is a coffee of exceptional quality.

Red Fox has been working in this area with these specific communities since 2007, when the remoteness of the region meant a lack of strong market access. Now, producers here have options for where they sell their coffee, and we continue to pay premium rates so that the relationships feel mutually rewarding.