La Esperanza

Hever Armando Trujillo Ortíz is a fourth-generation coffee grower from the rural township of Rica Brisa, in the municipality of Tarquí in south-central Huila. He’s been farming at his family farm, Finca La Esperanza, under the tutelage of his father, Hever Sr., and his mother, Blanca, for the last 18 years. La Esperanza sits at 1,900 m.a.s.l. and covers a total area of three hectares, with a little over half currently planted with coffee. Besides coffee, the family grows plantains and yucca. They live at the farm only during the main harvest season, which in this part of the Huila can go from May well into August. To carry out the careful hand-selection of the coffee cherries, Hever employs up to ten local pickers, as well as three permanent year-round workers to manage the farm and handle all off-season chores, such as pruning and fertilising. Harvest is depulped, fermented in bags for 40 to 50 hours, rinsed, and then dried on raised beds inside a parabolic greenhouse solar dryer for 15 to 20 days.