This Pacas lot, representing the late harvest, was picked and processed by Jose Angel Lopez on his farm, Los Nopales, in Los Andes, Santa Bárbara. Whole cherry in sealed bags for the trip down the mountain, left overnight, then depulped and fermented as a traditional washed process using concrete tanks.
Producer
_________________________________________________
Before having his own farm, José worked as a picker with the notable Moreno family in Los Andes, Santa Bárbara. In his first year with coffee to sell (1 bag of Pacas), José didn’t have any wet milling equipment or drying tables yet, so he borrowed from neighbours to get his coffee ready for delivery to the dry mill. That reliance on your community to get to the next step is critical, and something we can totally relate to. Once we received that first lot, Laura reached out to Benjamin to see if we could buy a depulper for José as thanks for the lovely coffee but also thinking ahead to next year’s harvest. With one hurdle out of the way perhaps José could find a spot on his property to process his lots. Benjamin actually happened to have a depulper hanging around on his farm that he wasn’t using, so the next time José was at the dry mill, the de-pulper was gifted to him.
Fast forward to today, four years later, José’s systems have fully come together with the completion of a fermentation tank and a solar dryer. He still needs one more dryer to accommodate the full (growing) harvest but if this year’s coffee is any indication, he’s well on his way to an established farm producing exceptional Pacas.
