Description
Finca La Primavera – Origin
La Primavera is in the upper part of the Bruselas district, in the municipality of Pitalito, at 1,650 m a.s.l. Its microclimate — sunny days and cold nights — favours a slow ripening of the fruit and the development of high-altitude coffees.
It is a second-generation coffee farm of 25 hectares, of which 17 are dedicated to coffee and 8 are kept as a nature reserve. Production is spread across about 25,000 trees of varieties such as Castillo, Caturra, Cenicafé and Bourbon Rosado.
The property was used for cattle farming until 1995, when the transition to coffee began with traditional varieties such as Caturra and Castillo. From 2005 the focus shifted to higher-quality coffees, with varietal changes and the consolidation of Bourbon Rosado. Today at La Primavera, washed and natural methods are used within a system aimed at diversifying profiles.
Rodrigo Molina and Inés Marina Galíndez
Rodrigo and Inés Marina are a married couple of coffee growers with a long track record in the sector. They started with traditional methods and over time focused entirely on specialty coffee.
Today they handle the full management of the farm — maintenance and harvesting included — with the support of local workers. Between them they farm around 20 hectares of coffee, where they have been adding various controlled fermentation processes, refined through trial and error.
Processing: washed with double fermentation
After harvesting, the coffee goes through flotation in water, which removes the fruit of lower density and ensures an even selection.
The whole cherries then go into bags for a first fermentation of 36 hours. The coffee is then pulped mechanically and goes through a second fermentation, another 36 hours, this time submerged in a mucilage culture prepared from a previous lot.
Once fermentation is finished, drying takes place in dehumidifiers until the right moisture level is reached, in about five days.
San Agustín in origin
Finca La Primavera is one of the farms we have been working with for some time. When we decided to document the origin of some of our coffees.
We sent Nicolás Fernández (@nicocinq), audiovisual producer based in Bogotá, to spend a few days with Rodrigo and Inés Marina. What was filmed is what you see below.
Huila
The department of Huila has established itself as one of the best-known coffee-growing regions of Colombia and one of the main references in the production of high-quality coffees. For more than a decade it has consistently ranked first in the country's coffee production, with coffee growing spread across its 35 municipalities.
Its mountainous geography, shaped by the Central and Eastern ranges, combines high altitudes, soils of volcanic origin and mild temperatures with good water availability for much of the year. The result is complex, balanced cup profiles.
Coffee growing in Huila takes place mainly on small and medium-sized family farms, where careful agronomic management and selective hand picking make it possible to obtain distinctive coffees. In recent years the region has also become one of the most dynamic origins in the country for its work with new varieties and processes.
