Jairo Lopez

This September specialty is from our great Swedish friend Alexander Ruas from Stand Out Coffee. 🇸🇪

When we started selecting coffees we had close to ten different samples and this particular coffee from Jairo’s lots stood out from the table as a clear winner. We liked its clean, sweet and complex flavours that offered something new while the temperature in the cup was changing. And that is always a clear sign of an excellent coffee!

Farm: La Esperanza
Farmer: Jairo Lopez
Location: Quindio – Pijao, Colombia
Altitude: 1670 masl
Varietal: Geisha
Process: Natural

La Esperanza farm, located in the municipality of Pijao at 1760 metres above sea level, better known as the Quindio mountain range, has a unique environmental offer, where the
Gesha varietal is produced with a total of 36,900 trees in production on a total of 14 hectares of coffee cultivation and 5 hectares in forests and protection areas.

This farm has a 3×3 planting distance which allows the tree to express itself and have enough space to develop and grow in optimal conditions. Through pruning we form the tree in such a way that the farmers have a harvest throughout the year, the coffee plantations are in association with crops (citrus, banana, plantain and flowers).

“We have trees from 15 months to 80 months, which guarantees us to have all the stages of the coffee bean at all times and through a good collection carried out by workers in the area we ensure the quality of our product, we offer more than 20 jobs per farm and we have 4 different farms located in the mountain range between (Córdoba- Buenavista and Pijao)”

In the La Esperanza farms, the methodology of planting and caring for the environment is essential. Farmers are aware of the change that must be made in our crops. Non-use of chemicals, shade, pruning our trees should not be cut down for 20-25 years, maintaining its production during all this time, thus keeping the legacy alive for many years.

Mr. Jairo López Agudelo, a civil engineer by profession, gave up a successful career to dedicate himself to his passion, the love of coffee. His father migrated to the Quindio mountain range where he acquired land, leaving his 14 children with farms in the Quindío municipalities. For more than 40 years the family lived from coffee and it was 10 years ago where Don Jairo with his brothers Edilberto, Jorge and Cesar who make up the Society López Agudelo y Cia. Limitada made the decision to change their traditional cultivation farms for specialty crops with exotic varietals, such as Gesha, Java, Mocca, Bourbon and Castillo.

This society of brothers has 4 farms where their lands cover 97 cultivated hectares, where Mr. Jairo has been in charge of giving special management to their crops so that their development is optimal and lasting. The Lopez family has a coffee trading company where they take care of the entire process, from harvesting the fruit to the final assembly of the green bean, where they deliver to buyers from all over the world.

The generational change is something very important in this family since Mr.Jairo and his brothers have followed the legacy that his father left them and now it is his children and his nephew who are in charge of the different processes of the coffee.

Expect notes of: Rose petals, peach, mango

Let us know what you think of this month’s Rare coffee on social media by tagging us #slurprare @slurpkahvi