During a journey through Colombia with Nespresso, chef Vicky Cheng
discovered multiple parallels between the art of coffee production
and the discipline of the culinary realmNURTURING EXCELLENCE
TATLER FOCUS / Nespresso
BEST PRACTICES
Vicky Cheng (above) travelled to the small town
of Jardín to learn more about the Nespresso
AAA Sustainability Quality ProgrammeNearly 17,000 kilometres and a
vastly different culture separate
Hong Kong and Colombia, but
Vicky Cheng found himself right at
home during a coffee-focused tour
of the country. Despite the dramatic
contrast between the Asian city and
the Latin American nation, the co-
founder of Michelin-starred VEA and
chef ambassador of Nespresso Hong
Kong felt much was familiar among
the unfamiliar during his four days
travelling around Colombia, a trip
that gave him a new appreciation for a
good cup of coffee. Cheng was able to
immerse himself in the process, from
picking coffee cherries to visiting the
co-operative to taste green coffees
and partake in professional cupping
sessions. His meetings with the
growers of Jardín, an Andean town in
the country’s northwest that is a five
hours’ drive from Medellín, gave him
a unique insight into the dedicated
efforts of Nespresso to support the
farmers in producing high-quality
coffee in a sustainable way.
The average coffee farm in Jardín is
a tiny two hectares, and many farmers
used to do the milling and drying of
their own coffee cherries. This crucial
step before the beans are roasted is
labour intensive and challenging, and
not every farm was able to maintain
the consistency and efficiency required
to produce quality beans—which
affects the environment as well as the
farmers’ livelihoods.
To address this, Nespresso built
a community coffee processing
centre in Jardín in 2010 under its
Nespresso AAA Sustainability Quality
Programme. The central mill has
enabled more than 200 farmers to
improve the quality and consistency
of their coffee—while doubling