Maria Rosa Oidor runs her farm, Los Nogales (or ‘the walnut trees‘ in Spanish’), with her husband Alfonso Pillimué and their four children. The farm is situated a thirty minute walk from the small town of San Antonio, where the couple also own a general store. Maria Rosa and Alfonso saved the money to buy their two-hectare farm some twenty years ago from the earnings they made from their shop.

Today, Maria Rosa’s entire family is dedicated entirely to coffee. Her two eldest sons, Neyid and Robinson, are well-regarded and respected coffee producers in their own right, with a passion for organic farming practices. Her youngest son, Nilson, has inherited part of the family farm and is working to learn more about coffee. Maria, now in her 60s, still takes a hike up the mountain every day to organise pickers and to schedule the day’s work. She is an impressive woman and an inspiration to many in the region.

Despite the small size of the farm, Maria and Alfonso had initially planted three different varieties on their land: Caturra, Typica, and Tabi. A few years ago, Maria made the tough decision to uproot her existing trees and renovate her farm, planting only Pink Bourbon, a variety with direct links to Ethiopia known for producing a floral and elegant cup. This offering is the first 100% Pink Bourbon lot we have sourced from Los Nogales. The high elevation of their farm (some 2,000 metres above sea level) makes it possible to continue growing this more disease-vulnerable variety, despite the dangers of coffee leaf rust. It also means the coffee cherries ripen more slowly, allowing a higher concentration of sugars to develop, resulting in a sweet and complex cup.

The coffee trees at Los Nogales are fertilised up to three times a year depending on the state and quantity of coffee on the tree, and seeds for new trees are collected and germinated on the farm itself. During the harvest, up to 15 workers help with picking and the family employs one permanent worker who maintains the crop throughout the year.