Edinson Villa Loayza

How long have you been growing coffee and what got you started?

“I am a second generation coffee farmer, where my parents started growing coffee here and established the farm in 1969. I was born on the farm so there was really no escaping it, I became a farmer at a young age. :)

I went to study agriculture and later came back to continue working on the family farm. Today we manage the farm together as a family, where my sister Raquel Runs the daily operations and I focus on the processing and quality control with my other sister Madeleine, who is also a Q grader.”

What is your favorite part of growing coffee?

“All from the actual cherry picking, where we collaborate with neighboring people to help pick during the season. We use both visual criteria's , but also measure the actual BRIX-levels with a refractometer to know the exact sweetness. And in the post harvest processing, where we elaborate with the honey and natural (to minimize the amount water we use) and different anaerobic processes to come to different results. All dried on our African tables.”

Conversely, what is the hardest part of your job?

“The actual maintenance of the farm is the toughest. We rely solely on the work being done by hand, as we have no machines. And our team is rather small. But we improve our activities every day.”

What is unique about how you grow and harvest coffee?

“We run our plantations under a diverse and native agroforestry system with only Arabica of varieties and seeds that have been conserved and known true to its origin. We then keep strict protocols during the full process from measuring and harvesting the ripe cherries, to PH levels, temperatures and drying times - all in order to repeatedly being able to produce a great tasting cup. And as we work as a family each team member has a designated roll, improving in it all the time.”

What are your plans to continue improving quality?

“Maintain our agroforestry system and keep on planting only high end arabica. Progressively improve each of the production processes independently. Keep on investigating and developing our fermentation processes. Systematize the cupping reports of each batch to get even better and consistent results. ”