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 / Tabi

Elevation: 1880-1900masl

Importer: Semilla & Monkaaba

Roast: Medium-light

Notes: Yellow Plum, Apricot, Lemon-Lime, Butterscotch

Farmgate paid to Orlando via Monkaaba - $3,000,000.00 Colombian Pesos / Carga (125kg parchment coffee)

Semilla’s FOB price : $4.40USD/lb exportable green coffee

our price - $5.95 USD/lb + shipping etc.

Don Orlando Quinayas : 

I ( Sonny ) had the unique privilege to visit Orlando's farm Campo Bello in July 2024. This was right after our first time buying and releasing his coffee, and it was one of our favourite coffees we had all year.

We rolled up to the Quinayas' family home late in the afternoon, their house nestled on the top of their farm, Campo Bello, which ran along the side of the mountain range.

The Quinayas family was large and welcoming, with big bowls of fruit, and fresh pot of coffee for sipping. Orlando was reserved at first, speaking little, but as Esnaider, Didier, and Brendan spoke about growing coffee, he started weighing in more and more.

As he showed us through his beautiful farm he was in his element. He took us downward from his house through all the different plots. He showed us newer trees he had planted, as well as really cool 40+ year old Caturra trees that were on the farm when he bought it. He keeps them around for fun, even though they no longer produce fruit.

We ended at near the bottom of his farm, where he had a large sugarcane press for making Guarapo, which is what they call the juice made from pressed Sugarcane. We made fresh Guarapo, mixed it with beautiful citrus they had growing on the farm, and refreshed ourselves in preparation for the trip back up the hill.

Getting to meet with the producers we work with in this way is so important to us and is super motivating. Seeing the hard work that Orlando and other producers put into growing coffee really puts things into perspective. It always leaves us wanting to work harder to be able to buy and sell more of their amazing coffee.

We were very happy to receive a 5x70kg bag lot of coffee from Orlando again, as well as a 5x70kg bag lot from his son Yivier Quinayas. We very much appreciate our friends at Monkaaba and Semilla inviting us to visit Orlando and other producers that we work with, and hope to visit again soon!

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 coffee 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 neighbours at their farms. 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 0.5 hectares of land from his neighbours.

"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 selling his coffee to them.

This was another new learning curve for Orlando, but with the support of Monkaaba, Orlando was encouraged to 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 what is the second Micro-lot 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, as well as his son Yivier Quinayas' Caturra!

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?

Juicy and sweet, this coffee has soft yellow plum & apricot sweetness, with punchy lemon lime, and a enveloping butterscotch finish. Very nice, smooth creamy body and length for days. This coffee is perfect for pour-over or a balanced 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. 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