Farm info

Finca El Progreso is located in Vereda El Caramelo, Palestina municipality outside of the city of Pitalito. The farm belongs to Rodrigo Sanchez Valencia and Claudia Samboni and grows Geisha, Bourbon, and Caturra trees between 1580-1700 meters above sea level. The property has been a coffee farm for 80 years, starting with eight hectares planted with coffee and growing to its current 22 hectares.

The property is special because it is where the Sanchez Valencia family was born and raised. Rodrigo, Claudia, and their team focus on producing both quality and quantity. By following a systematic plan for fertilizations, variety selection, pest and plague control, harvesting, and processing, they and their team are able to produce both consistent quality and overall high volumes per hectare.

All cherries harvested are measured for degrees Brix. Based on sugar content indicated, the team at Aromas del Sur, the umbrella group of Monteblanco, Progreso, and La Loma farms, then designates which processing method is appropriate. Coffees with 24-27 degrees Brix are processed as washed coffees, beginning with depulping cherries they day they are harvested.

Coffee is fermented for 28–32 hours, fully washed with clean water, transferred to the solar dryer for several days, and finally moved to shaded raised beds to complete the drying process. Floaters are removed at the first stage prior to depulping to produce clean, consistent coffees that represent the terroir of the farm.

While the farm runs successfully as a business, the land holds special meaning as family legacy. These are the connections to people and place Rodrigo and his family share when they offer their coffee.

Read more about Rodrigo and Claudia’s other experimental farm, Finca Monteblanco, on the Ally Coffee blog. Pictured below is Don Rodrigo, Rodrigo’s father and inspiration for growing coffee.

Region

Huila

The Colombian Department of Huila is located in the southern portion of the country where the Central and Eastern ranges of the Andes mountains converge. Huila’s capitol city of Neiva is dry, flat, and desert-like, markedly different from the coffee regions further south.

Centered around the city of Pitalito, Huila’s coffee farms are predominately smallholder owned and over the past ten years have made consorted efforts to produce specialty coffee that reveals the full character of the region’s terroir. Selective manual harvesting, attentive processing, and careful post-harvest sorting all contribute to increasing recognition of the region.

Huila’s Departmental coffee committee, the local connection to the national Colombian Coffee Growers Federation, has invested notable resources into training producers in everything from fertilization to roasting. This, combined with producer enthusiasm, has created a regional culture of quality-focused production.

Huila holds important historic significance dating back to pre-Columbian cultures. The archaeological site at San Agustin includes a large number of stone carvings, figures, and artifacts that offer a rare glimpse into the land’s past prior to colonialism.