The Acevedo Family
This lot from Daisy Acevedo has somewhat of a backstory. Daisy is the daughter of Gustavo Acevedo, who we have purchased coffee from in the past. Gustavo has grown coffee all his life, near the town of La Celia in Risaralda, mainly of lower quality Castillo and Catimor plants. A few years ago, Daisy and her husband Freddy returned from living in Panama with stories of a varietal that was taking the coffee world by storm and making producers in the country good money for their crops - Geisha. On her return to Risaralda, Daisy attempted to get hold of some seeds locally for her father, but without much success. On a return visit to Panama, Daisy and Freddy were able to procure some seeds, but weren’t sure if they were of the correct Geisha varietal. They planted them on Gustavo’s farm outside La Celia, and almost forgot about them.
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Fast forward three years and the plants were ready for a small harvest. Skeptical of his daughter’s stories of wealth and fame, Gustavo harvested the coffee and quietly sold it to to the local cooperative in La Celia, using a friend’s name in an attempt to find out its true value. He knew he had something rather special when two members of the La Cabra team turned up in La Celia in search of the source of that lot.
We visited the cooperative in La Celia in November 2019, in an attempt to find out more about the mysterious lot we had purchased from our partners at LaREB the previous summer. Together with Herbert and Ana of LaREB, we were able to establish contact with Gustavo, Daisy and Freddy, and find out a few more details about Gustavo’s farm. After much discussion together with LaREB, they are now sure that their trees are of the original Geisha varietal, and have been working on picking and processing in order to add value to their crop and create more consistency in the cup.
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El Encanto
This lot is from Daisy and Freddy’s new project, El Encanto. El Encanto is located near Filandia in the Quindio region, a beautiful and lush part of the country, popular with Colombian holiday makers and weekend travelers. This is truly one of the most beautiful farms we have visited, located on the borders of a nature reserve, stretching down to a mountain river.
Daisy’s background as a biologist means she takes conservation seriously, and feels a great responsibility for the many species of native flora found on the farm, which she showed us with great enthusiasm on our visit in November 2021. Only a small amount of the land is actually planted with coffee, all grown under the shade of these rare native trees. Daisy and Freddy have purchased Penagos processing equipment, enabling a great deal of control, in a way we normally only see in Costa Rica or Brazil. They are also building a small cupping lab next to the house, trying to keep quality control close to the everyday work on the farm. A truly ambitious project, and one we see great potential in.
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This lot of washed Geisha is our second purchase from Daisy and El Encanto. This plot has been planted with seeds from Gustavo’s Geisha plot in La Celia, and delivers on the same bright and complex lemongrass and jasmine florals, while the crisp citrus in the cup is tighter, cleaner and better balanced than what we experienced in Gustavo’s coffee 6 years ago. We’re grateful to our partners at LaREB for their transparency in enabling our relationship with the Acevedo family, and hope to follow Daisy, Freddy and Gustavo in the coming years.
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