ORTEGA-GOMEZ | Colombia | washed

The history of coffee cultivation in the Ortega-Gomez family goes back several generations and goes back about sixty years to the beginnings of coffee cultivation in San Agustin. It was Luis Felipe Rodriguez and his son Paulo Emilio Ortega who, in search of a better life for themselves, began growing coffee alongside other subsistence crops such as corn. Don Paulo then passed on parcels of land to his son Don Olgar Ortega-Bolaños and his grandson Esnaider Ortega-Gomez.

After graduating from school, Esnaider decided to work alongside his father because he felt coffee offered great opportunities for the family. For Esnaider, however, this was never a purely economic endeavor. While he obviously wants them to earn a living that meets and exceeds their needs, most of all he wants to build strong relationships with conscientious buyers around the world who believe in them as people and want to invest in building a relationship for the long term, that enhances and informs all parties.
Esnaider and Olgar work with a small group of workers (with whom they work year in and year out, treating them like family and paying them prices well above local rates) to traverse the steep hills of their farm and pick cherries from their growing supply Collects varieties. Esnaider is motivated to build a repertoire of coffee varieties to better meet his customers' needs. Today these include Sidra, Tabi, Typica, Yellow and Red Caturra as well as Castillo.
A day at her benefit shows her tireless commitment to quality. As Esnaider often jokes, “Our coffee has a better life than us.” The cherries arrive bright red and ripe and are always washed away, potentially underripe or by insects
Remove damaged beans. All coffee is dried in the shade to ensure long and consistent drying times. Since the temperatures are quite cool, the coffees have to be dried in the shade.