It is always exciting to taste the year’s fresh crop from Juan, they are always so sweet and balanced. Juan owns two farms, La Claudina and El Encanto, both of which are located near Bolivar in Antioquia. The main farm house is at the bottom of a steep valley and its slopes are planted with varieties such as Caturra, Castillo, Tabi, Variedad Colombia and even Geisha.
Juan’s two farms are quite large so we hope to grow with him and his coffees in the future with the aim of working and using a more direct model of buying. We buy coffees from both of his farms but have always had a slight preference fro those from La Claudina. We’ve been buying increasingly large volumes from there for our Unit 14 year on year. During the height of the season Juan will employ 45 pickers and out of season the farm employs 3 permanent staff. What drew us to working with Juan is his hands on approach, he lives by the farm, works the land, processes and experiments with the coffee.
Seasonal buying is about seeing coffee as a crop not a commodity, buying in harmony with the growing seasons to enjoy coffee at its best. This kind of buying has always been the backbone of our business and it’s something we’ve improved and refined every year.
