Spot Continental NJ Archives - Arango Specialty Coffee

33 | El Mango

Producer Gilberto Giraldo	Description Balanced, sugar cane, dry fruit, chocolate
Process Washed	Varietals Colombia, Castillo
Region Antioquia	Elevation 1,800 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Like other farms in the area, Gilberto and El Mango have experienced a couple of challenging years. Dramatic climate changes in the last few years have diminished the production yield considerably. On top of that, the resurgence of activity among armed illegal groups in the region led to multiple displacements from the farm, including once during the harvest last year.

While these obstacles proved difficult to overcome, Gilberto took them in stride and is still planning for the upcoming years. He has new varietals like Chirosos and Pink Bourbon, that are mature now and is excited to experiment with different processing methods. His unwavering commitment to El Mango is evident and we are equally committed to riding out the ups and downs with him.

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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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15 | El Mango – Chiroso

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Gilberto Giraldo	Description Floral, honey, tea, stone fruit
Process Washed	Varietals Chiroso
Region Antioquia	Elevation 1,800 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

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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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162 | La Soledad – Chiroso

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Elpidio Arboleda	Description Floral, green tea, stone fruit, honey
Process Washed	Varietals Chiroso
Region Antioquia	Elevation 2,100meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Born into a coffee family, Elpidio grew up learning the subtleties of producing coffee from his father. Fifty years later, he is still working with coffee. He manages La Soledad with the help of his daughter, Erika, and son in law, Frainer Rueda.
La Soledad, is planted with 20,000 trees of the Chiroso varietal. Planning for long-term production, Elpidio methodically planted sections of trees at different times. This allows him to have more trees planted as they are not all in production at the same time. He can also prune older trees down to regenerate without a significant yield loss.
Elpidio is meticulous about his processing, using a 24 hour cherry fermentation prior to depulping the coffee. He then gives it another 48 hours of fermentation before the drying stage, which usually takes between 3 days and a week, depending on weather conditions.He has participated in coffee competitions for the past 5 years, topping the Antioquia coffee competition in 2019.

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60 | El Balso

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Walter Vargas	Description Sweet, honey, floral, bakers chocolate
Process Washed	Varietals Castillo, Caturra
Region Antioquia	Elevation 2,100 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Located in Betulia, El Balso originally belonged to Walter’s grandparents. Passed down through generations, it is now home to Walter, his wife, Gloria, their son, and Walter’s mother. As a true family business, everyone helps out with the daily activities and maintenance.

Of the 5,000 coffee trees planted, 2,000 are currently pruned and not producing coffee for this harvest. The other 3,000 consist of Castillo Rosario and Tabi varietals which will account for roughly 8 bags of beans. With this smaller scale production, Walter believes he is better able to focus on both carefully selecting cherries and processing them.

Budgeting for maintenance and upgrades is tough with narrow profit margins, but Walter recently replaced the plastic on one of his two marquesinas (drying bed). He would like to install pipes to transport the picked cherries from the field to the wet mill as well. We are hopeful that our financing opportunities and profit sharing business model will support his endeavors.

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121 | Santa Marta Community Lot

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Various	Description Caramel, chocolate, honey, stone fruit, cherry
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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64 | La Cartagena

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Jorge Cartagena	Description Dark chocolate, maple syrup, spices, berries
Process Washed, sun-dried	Varietals Caturra, Colombia
Region Antioquia	Elevation 1,950 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Like many of the farmers we work with, Jorge learned the art of producing coffee from his father. However, after inheriting his father’s small coffee farm, he chose to sell it. With the money from that sale he was able to purchase La Cartagena, a farm that has allowed him to pursue the production of specialty coffee. He now has 4,500 coffee trees planted – a combination of Caturra and Colombia varietals. As he continually works to enhance the quality of his coffee, Jorge already has plans to improve both his water supply and his wet beneficio. Proud of his profession, Jorge is also teaching his children how to grow coffee. He hopes the family tradition will continue for many generations to come.

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163 | Las Palomas – Chiroso

Spot Continental NJ

Producer Wilfran Trujillo	Description Plum, florals, honey, citrus
Process Washed	Varietals Chiroso
Region Antioquia	Elevation 2,000 meters
Position Spot	Warehouse Continental, New Jersey

Wilfran grew up around coffee, learning alongside his father and grandfather. In 2013, he moved to Las Palomas and began planting coffee trees in partnership with his father. They are very proud of what they have built together. The farm currently has around 1,500 Chiroso trees producing cherries and another 1,500 that are a year old. Wilfran intends to expand the farm with the addition of 5,000 trees this year.
As the farm grew, so did Wilfran’s family. With his wife and daughter at the farm, life at Las Palomas has come full circle with Wilfran’s daughter learning about coffee alongside her father and grandfather.
Outside of life at Las Palomas, Wilfran enjoys playing music. He is a member of a local band and they love performing.

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