Colombia
Antioquia
Echavarria Family
Finca Agualinda
Chiroso
Honey
November–January; April–June
Apple, Muscovado, Red Grape
1950 meters
N/A
70 kg w/ GrainPro
UAE - Dubai - DMCC
Finca Agualinda is owned and operated by the Echavarria Family, who are also responsible for operations at the Pergamino exporting company. Pergamino began not as an exporter, but as a coffee production company started by Pedro Echavarria Sr, who began growing coffee at a small, abandoned farm in the 1970s. His love for coffee grew quickly, and he later expanded the company to the town of Santa Barbara where Pergamino maintains the bulk of its production capacity.
The Echavarria Family acquired Finca Agualinda in 2003, and established it as the heart of their coffee growing business. The farm was planted with Castillo coffee, and the family worked over a two decade period to replant the property’s high elevation plots with varieties known for their quality. Since 2019, they have also worked to plant the Chiroso varieties on some of their plots under 1900 meters.
Chiroso coffee was originally found in the town of Urrao and was grown by Jose Arcadio Caro, Pergamino’s first allied producer in the area. Initially, the short trees were called Caturra Chiroso for their physical similarities to Caturra; however, it was later determined that the variety does not have a relationship with the Typica family like Caturra, but is instead descended from an Ethiopian landrace variety. Jose planted the variety initially for its high productivity potential in cold temperatures, only later discovering Chiroso’s differentiated cup profile. The variety was then made famous by Jose and his neighbor Doña Carmen, both of whom placed well in the Cup of Excellence with the variety.
This lot of Chiroso underwent Honey processing. Pulped coffee was dried on raised beds under plastic for 15–20 days.
Antioquia is perhaps Colombia’s most traditional coffee producing department, with small
plots, mid-size properties, and large estates stretching up and down the steep mountains of the Western Range of the Andes that runs through the department. Coffee production stretches wide through the department, beginning as soon as Medellín’s suburbs end and continuing all the way to Antioquia’s southern border with Risaralda and Caldas.
Coffee growers in Antioquia are proud cafeteros, where smallholders still use some traditional means like transporting coffee via mule. Many farms plant varieties developed by the Colombian Coffee Growers’ Federation (FNC), choosing varieties intended for the specific conditions of each of the country’s growing regions and adhering to standards like recommended planting densities.
But, recently, Antioquia’s farmers have been branching out to implement new systems and techniques. Almost all of Colombia’s farms include a small wet mill and a drying surface, often a rooftop surface with a removable cover, for processing coffee. Antioquia’s farms are often described as “technified,” applying the latest agronomic innovations. Today, farmers diversify this technification beyond prescribed best practices suited for the whole department, instead developing their own technical improvements to make the most of their property’s attributes and produce the finest coffee possible.
