Alexander Vargas, Colombia

Alexander Vargas Osorio bought La Piragua in 2009. At that time, it was essentially a just plot of land with potential; it had road access, water and electrical supply, and a few coffee trees planted. Alexander and his wife Lidia started from scratch, first building a house for themselves and an area to process coffee. The story from there is quite amazing. Every year Alexander and Lidia made some kind of improvement, including helping the community start a small school locally.

The family continue making changes and improvements and their latest project has been installing a small coffee roaster so that they can roast, and cup, every lot they produce. Alexander says this latest development has been decisive in the evaluation of quality. The system relies on good traceability on the farm. To make changes to fertilization, pruning, picking and processing plans from the tasting feedback, Alexander must know where and when the coffee was picked, timings across the processing, and the impact of any changes already made. Alexander and Lidia have turned La Piragua into a model farm.

• Region: Palestina, Huila
• Country: Colombia
• Elevation: 1,800 m
• Variety: Pink Bourbon
  
• Processing: Washed - Prolonged Fermentation