Marcela Valle, Fincas La Virgen and Las Cumbres
I started working as a coffee producer only five years ago, but I grew up on our farm with my family...
My grandfather built a nursery for new coffee plants in our backyard when I was little, and I was immediately fascinated, so I always wanted to help him. And my father often took me to our farm when I was a child.
I still remember how much I loved being there. I'm a civil engineer now, but first and foremost, I'm a coffee producer. A bit like my father, who was a teacher at our local primary school his entire career, but was always on our farm when he wasn't in the classroom. In 2020, I participated in a series of workshops organized by Cafesmo to learn how to brew specialty coffees, and it was an extraordinary experience. Perhaps, as an engineer, I have a mind that loves science and technology, and brewing great specialty coffee is all about that.
My brother—who is also an engineer—and I immediately set to work on a solar dryer, and a few months later we had built one with 324 removable African drying beds. This makes it much easier to move the coffee from one level or corner of our solar dryer to another, so we can speed up or slow down the drying process depending on the conditions and the specific characteristics of each batch.
So, although I still work as an engineer, I'm returning to our farm much more often than before. The atmosphere is too appealing to stay away from. The weather is cool, and my coworkers are friendly. They also smile more often than people in the office. At our farm, I'm now in charge of the micro-lots and the processing.
The process I personally prefer is the honey method. It's authentic, a middle ground between the other processes, although I also really enjoy making anaerobic coffees because it's a bit more challenging and you have to get the timing right.
And when the sun sets behind the hills that surround our land, I love to sit quietly with my last coffee of the day, one that I've made myself, literally from harvest to cup!
Property details
We cultivate coffee on 42 hectares of fertile land with ample natural shade. Old pine trees cover much of our plantation and the surrounding forest, creating a cooler and somewhat humid climate. We have also planted plenty of banana, orange, and linden trees to increase shade and for our own use.
Varieties: some Pacas , Icatú , and Anacafé 14 , but the dominant ones are Parainema and Obata .
Located between 1,200 and 1,550 meters . We begin harvesting our coffees at the lower altitudes in late October and finish with the beans in the higher parts towards the beginning of March, which guarantees a long harvest season, and of high quality.
FTO and Rain Forest Alliance certified .
