Santa Monica | Colombia | Espresso

TL;DR: from one of the family farms of our friends at Cofinet. This coffee is testament to the hard work, and incredible skill of the family, and we are honoured to get to share it with you

 

Jairo Arcila is a third-generation coffee grower from Quindio, Colombia. He is married to Luz Helena Salazar (keep your eyes peeled for a release of one of her Geisha coffees!) and they have two children together, Carlos and Felipe Arcila, who are the co- founders of our import partner, Cofinet.

Jairo’s first job was at Colombia’s second-largest exporter, working as their Mill Manager for over 40 years until his retirement in 2019. Jairo bought his first coffee farm, Finca La Esmeralda, in 1987 and this is where he planted his first Caturra lot.

He was fortunate enough to earn money by producing coffee on his farm in addition to working full time.Using his savings, Jairo slowly managed to purchase five additional farms. After Esmeralda came Villarazo, Mazatlan, Santa Monica, Maracay and then Buenos Aires.

During the harvest period, Jairo is able to provide a number of jobs to locals which has a significant economic impact on their community.

Jairo has received great advice and guidance from his sons who are now experts in producing Specialty Coffee. With their help, Jairo has greatly improved the picking, sorting, and processing of his coffees. His sons have also guided Jairo in the production of exotic varieties. He now grows varieties like Pink Bourbon, Java, Papayo ,and Gesha growing across all his farms. The guidance from his sons has empowered Jairo and given him the tools needed to produce fantastic coffees with amazing flavour profiles.

Besides coffee, Jairo also grows other agricultural products on his farms such as mandarin, orange, plantain, and banana. Jairo enjoys starting the day with a really good breakfast! But most importantly, he enjoys spending time with his family.

We’ve roasted this coffee aiming to highlight the complexity and layers upon layers of fruit and sweetness. It remains clean and expressive, no matter how you brew it. A real treat!

We start with the same recipe for all of our espresso coffees:
 

• 20g dose
• 45g yield
• 30 seconds

 

From here we will tweak things to get the flavours to highlight things we like. Use this as your starting point and go wild!

 

Note: some domestic espresso machines can’t use a 20g dose. Please always follow your manufacturers instructions to avoid damaging your equipment.