Elmer Yobani Mancía, Fincas Las Balanzas and El Encinón

When it has rained too much, and for too long. But there he feels happy, of course.

Elmer started working with his father when he was very young. Together, they worked the land six days a week. They grew a little coffee, and some other crops as well, like corn and beans. The beans were mostly for their own consumption; the coffee was to be sold to whoever came along first, in exchange for money.

Once Elmer grew up, he was able to buy some land for himself and decided to dedicate most of it to coffee. Since his two small plots are located in hard-to-reach areas, he usually walks for half an hour with 80 pounds of coffee in his bag to get home, accompanied by his mule, which—luckily—is capable of carrying much more than Elmer himself.

Once he became a member of Cafesmo, he discovered he could also brew specialty coffees and get a better price for his coffee by selling it to whoever came to his house first. He learned to wash and then dry the coffees on his patio. Washed microlots are typically dried for about eight days, part of the day in the shade and part in the sun.