Spot Continental NJ Archives - Arango Specialty Coffee

155 | Vista Hermosa – Pink Bourbon

Producer Everardo Ortiz	Description Floral, lemongrass, citrus, nougat, cocoa powder
Process Washed	Varietals Pink Bourbon
Region Nariño	Elevation 1,950 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Everardo’s farm, Vista Hermosa, is truly what the name implies. Translating from Spanish as “beautiful view”, the farm overlooks the Jamundy Canyon which runs through the Andes in the south of Colombia.

Everardo inherited the farm from his father. He raised his three children with his wife and was able to provide education to them with the proceeds from the farm. After Everardo’s wife passed away in 2017, he remained committed to the farm as two of his children want to continue working with coffee.

Focused on expansion, Everardo planted 5,000 new trees, bringing his currently total to 12,000 trees. His next goal is to build a wet mill on the property. For now, he relies on a nephew that lives close by to process his coffee. Having the infrastructure at Vista Hermosa would allow him to work more efficiently as he increases his productivity.

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202 | ARANGO DECAF E.A.

Spot Continental NJ

Producer La Miranda Community	Description Sweet, sugar cane, caramel, chocolate
Process Washed	Varietals Castillo, Colombia
Region Antioquia	Elevation 1,800 to 1,900 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

La Miranda is a small community located in Ituango, Antioquia, Colombia. The region is rich in fertile soils and beautiful landscapes that produce excellent coffee. However, the beauty and the remoteness of the region comes with its own challenges. For the last 40 years, this region has struggled with violence. Massacres, displacements, and extortions have made coffee farming very difficult. We have a lot of respect for people that persist and still grow coffee in these conditions. It’s also amazing to us that farmers can produce the quality of coffees that we are getting under these difficult conditions.
The lots that we selected for the decaffeination process are solid 86+ coffees. We cupped the coffees again after the E.A. decaffeination process and we were very please with the results.
We understand that when people ask for decaf coffee they do it because the flavor not the caffeine. We shouldn’t neglect decaf coffee anymore and we should treat it with respect for people that produce it as well as people that drink it. That is our goal with our decaf program.

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179 | La Fortuna – Chiroso

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Maximiliano Vargas	Description Floral, green tea, maple syrup
Process Washed	Varietals Chiroso
Region Antioquia	Elevation 2,100meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Maximiliano has been working with coffee since 2,000. He is grateful coffee gave him the opportunity to provide for his four now grown children and for his wife when she was alive. Maximiliano’s wife Maria Estela died in 2020. Maximiliano has 3,500 chriroso trees at La Fortuna. In 2021 Maximiliano participated in a coffee competitions with his coffee and placed in the top 10.
Maximiliano explains that he is very meticulous with his coffee processing, he picked one day, depulped 24 hours later, let the coffee sit in the fermentation tank for 72 hours, before washing it.
Maximiliano is planning on making some improvements at his farm starting with his drying facilities and also his wet beneficio. He believes these improvements will allow him to improve even more the quality of his coffee.

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68 | El Silencio – Chiroso

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Jose Flores	Description Vibrant, citrus, caramel, peach, floral
Process Washed	Varietals Chiroso
Region Antioquia	Elevation 2,050 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

A farmer all his life, José only shifted to coffee production when he purchased El Silencio nine years ago. The small farm is home to him and his wife, Martha Lucia, and is planted with 5,000 coffee trees. Of those trees, only 2,500 are old enough to produce coffee now.

The decision to operate on a smaller scale was deliberate. All of the coffee planted at El Silencio is the delicate chiroso varietal. While it is more susceptible to disease, José believes the risk pays off with the quality of the cup. By keeping his farm small, José can monitor all stages of the harvest and processing carefully to assure the health of his plants and the caliber of his coffee.

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201 | El Cachonal – Chiroso

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Sebastian Urrego	Description Floral, honey, green tea
Process Washed	Varietals Chiroso
Region Antioquia	Elevation 2,100meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Sebastian comes from a family of coffee growers. His father taught him the skills needed to take over the farm once he retired.

Sebastian believes that a combination between traditional methods of growing coffee combined with innovative processing provides a great approach to make coffee growing profitable. He currently has 6,000 trees of the Chiroso varietal at El Chaconal. With his own wet mill and drying beds, Sebastian pays close attention to processing. Currently he lets the coffee ferment in the cherry for 12 hours before depulping it and continuing fermentation for another 24 hours. The drying process takes a minimum of 6 to 12 days depending on the weather conditions.
Always looking for room to improve, Sebastian has the goal of improving his wet mill and his drying facilities. He knows how important these is are for maintaining the quality and consistency of his coffees.

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17 | La Esmeralda

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Arquímedes España	Description Nutty, sugar cane, chocolate, stone fruit
Process Washed, sun-dried	Varietals Colombia, castillo
Region Nariño	Elevation 1,800 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

At just two and a half hectares, La Esmeralda is a small farm. Nevertheless, it is home to Arquímedes, his wife, Tatiana, and their young daughter. They are proud of the effort invested to transform this property into both their business and home.

Arquímedes is aware that every detail matters when producing coffee and is continuously planning upgrades for La Esmeralda, starting with the addition of more drying beds. His goals are to increase efficiency and further improve quality. He participated in the Cup of Excellence competition in the past and hopes to return again.

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121 | Santa Marta Community Lot

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Various	Description TBA
Process Washed	Varietals Castillo, F4
Region Nariño	Elevation 1,900 to 2,100 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Santa Marta is a small coffee farming community located in the Nariño department in the south of Colombia. The average output of every farm per year is about 10 bags of green coffee. Our Community lot is comprised of lots from 10 small farms located between 1,900 and 2,100 meters above sea level.

After cupping these coffees for the first time last year, we saw an opportunity to work with the community. The coffees showed great complexity and sweetness as well as consistency from farm to farm. We believe that the proximity of these small farms plays a big role in their consistency and uniformity.

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16 | El Plan

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Patricia Benitez	Description Sweet, caramel, maple syrup, bakers chocolate
Process Washed, sun-dried	Varietals Castillo, F4
Region Nariño	Elevation 1,750 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental Terminals, New Jersey

Coffee has always been a way of life for Patricia. Growing up on her father’s farm, she helped with the day to day activities with her siblings. After he passed away, Patricia inherited a portion of her farm where she started El Plan fifteen years ago.
As of 2023 Patricia and her husband Alex have 9,000 trees of coffee planted at El Plan of the varietal Castillo F4.

Coming full circle, she and her husband Alex now provide for her family with coffee production. However, Patricia, like many other Colombian coffee farmers, faces new challenges that are shrinking profits; climate change and the ever increasing costs of production are the main contributors to the declining margins. As we enter our fourth year working with Patricia, and been able to pay above market price for her coffee, we witnessed the importance that coffee has played in the oportunitites for the family. Patricia and Alex have been able to pay for the education of their son in a private university with the proceeds of coffee. Something that was unthinkable of a generation ago. We are humble and proud of working with farmer’s like Patricia an hope to impact many other farmers life giving them the opportunity of having a sustainable business model.

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41 | La Mina

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Henry Martinez	Description Floral, lemongrass, molasses, brown sugar
Process Washed, sun-dried	Varietals Colombia, Castillo
Region Nariño	Elevation 1,960 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Ask Henry Martinez to describe the coffee industry and he will tell you, “Coffee is a blessing for all of us” and that he owes everything he has to hard work and coffee. He can recall good years and bad years, but is quick to note that lately the bad years are overwhelming the good ones. Coffee prices have been very low even though the cost of production keeps climbing.

After getting married to his wife Ricardina, Henry bought La Mina from his father. Through hard work and carefully managed expenses, he was able to pay off the farm in two years. While he originally planted caturra varietals, he found out after only 5 years how susceptible that variety is to leaf rust.

Now La Mina is planted with castillo varietals and focused on the production of specialty coffee as Henry sees this as an important opportunity to reduce the volatility in coffee prices. He knows that if we can develop strong relationships with customers over time, he can concentrate on his craft without worrying if he is going to break even at the end of the harvest.

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78 | El Naranjo White Honey

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Evelio Bados	Description Floral, grapes, molasses, chocolate
Process White honey, sun-dried	Varietals Colombia, Castillo
Region Nariño	Elevation 1,900 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

El Naranjo began over 35 years ago as just a vision. Evelio invested in an untouched lot and worked very hard to clear the land and eventually plant coffee. He was working double duty during this time as he was also employed at other farms in order to provide for his family.

After watching his dream come to fruition, Evelio is proud that his children are continuing his legacy to produce coffee at El Naranjo. It is important to him that his children and El Naranjo are successful for generations to come.

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