Origin: El Roble, San Agustin, Huila, Colombia

Producer: Don Orlando Quinayas & Fam.

Farm: Campo Bello (2.5 Hectares planted, 3.5 hectares total)

Process: Washed

Varieties: Red Caturra

Elevation: 1880-1900masl

Importer: Semilla & Monkaaba

Roast: Medium-light

Notes: Plum Jam, Lilac, Almond, Cocoa

Farmgate paid to Orlando via Monkaaba - $2,700,000.00 Colombian Pesos / Carga (125kg parchment coffee)

Semilla’s FOB price : $3.80USD/lb exportable green coffee

our price - $5.20 usd/lb + shipping etc.

Don Orlando Quinayas : 

Who is Orlando Quinayas you say?

Orlando comes from a family of generational coffee farmers in the village of San Lorenzo del Obispo in San Agustin. There he worked with his family everyday after school, and eventually deciding to leave school at 15, he began travel around Huila as a coffee picker, something we see quite often with youth in growing regions.

He continued as a coffee picker for four years, returning to his family farm during the off-season to help them and their neighbors at their farm. Seeing how hardworking Orlando had become, his family gifted him a small lot of land with 1000 "common" varietal trees planted on it for him to work, he was 20 at the time. Seven years later, with profits from the farm and other side work saved, he was able to purchase another .5hectares of land from his neighbors.

"In this life one is not exempt from things" says Don Orlando (Don is an honorific in the spanish language for elders, similar to sir in anglo), to which I say, fucking right. In his 20's Orlando suffered on and off from an illness that deprived him from work (again a common issue with youth working on commercial coffee farms). This illness eventually brought him to El Roble to seek treatment. Not only was he cured of his illness, but he also found his better half, Mrs. Efigneia Burbano.

For many years Orlando worked on Efigenia's family farm, until an opportunity arrived for him to sell his old land and purchase a 1.75 hectare farm in El Roble, which is now his farm Campo Bello. The land had a spattering of old and poorly conditioned coffee trees already on it, so he decided to replace them with 4,000 caturra trees, a popular varietal at the time(and still is imo, though less celebrated). This turned out to be more challenging than he thought, as at the time, growing at such a high altitude was, and still is, quite difficult.

the now -

Orlando now works the finca Campo Bello, with his wife and children. It has grown to 3.5 hectares of land, and they continue to grow more unique coffee varietals over time. They provided us with a list of everything they're growing, so i'll put that at the bottom cause it's pretty cool.

It wasn't until 2022 that Orlando sampled Monkaaba his coffee via an initiation from his daughter Diana. Orlando had mistrust for the specialty industry after being burnt by a few other "specialty" buyers in the area. But trusting his daughter, and the work of Monkaaba & Semilla, he agreed to start discussing the selling of his coffee to them.

This was another new learning curve for Orlando, but with the support of Monkaaba, Orlando was encouraged and put the work and investment into producing specialty quality.

Now we collectively get to enjoy enjoy the literal fruits of his labour as we're receiving one of his first Micro-lots to be sold under his name. Orlando says he feels very proud, happy, and motivated to continue working on his quality.

We're stoked to have this beautiful coffee from Campo Bello, and can't wait to see what is coming down the line from the Quinayas' family.

If you wish to read more about Semilla, Monkaaba, and the work being done in Colombia, head over to their site! https://www.semilla.ca/projects/1jq18VvLX0WoyK7hvxeeLM

"so, what does it taste like?"

a nice medium- light roast, this coffee is reminiscent of our Caturra from Ruben last year. Sticky plum jam sweetness, with a soft lilac florality, toasted almond and cocoa, it's a super balanced cup that will perform beautifully in filter or espresso.

the details:

"Cherries are collected for three days in a row, every 21 days. The coffee from the first
and second day are left to ferment for one and two days respectively before all of the
coffee is depulped together on the third day with the coffee that is picked that day.
Once all of the coffee is depuled it is left to dry ferment for 20 hours in ceramic tiled
tanks. The coffee is then washed and then left to drain for a few hours before being
moved into a solar dryer for 15-20 days."

- trees on Campo Bello.

- 1,500 Caturra trees - 5 years old
- 550 Tabi trees - 6 years old
- 500 Pink Bourbon trees - 3 years old
- 2,500 Pink Bourbon trees - 2 months old
- 1,500 Cogollo Morado trees - 7 years old
- 1,200 Cogollo Morado trees - 2 years old
- 200 Geisha trees - 8 months old