Colombian coffees -- Hacienda El Porvenir: how it all started --Part 1

A Briton by the name of James Tyrrell Moore (London 1803 - Bogotá 1881) landed in Colombia in 1829 and, after several ventures as an engineer mining gold, building furnaces and promoting a diversity of projects, he settled in Cundinamarca, where he bought land and began planting coffees; in 1868 he patented a coffee drying machine and set the foundations of a well-organized coffee plantation.

In the late 1800s, another coffee icon in Cundinamarca don Luis Mejia, who also held a patent for another coffee drier and also for a mechanical rake and who was related to Moore's wife, received the Hacienda.

Don Pedro Fierro, who had been the estate's administrator under the Mejía family, inherited the 72 hectare Hacienda El Porvenir from don Jorge Mejía, the last of the Mejía clan.

Nowadays, don Orlando Fierro runs the Hacienda El Porvenir.

Orlando's passion for coffee and for quality has led him to set stringent conditions on all of the processes, from variety selection all the way to roasting and packing.

Orlando set up the organic handling process, producing his own compost, organic fertilizers and organic pesticides; he has planted hundreds of native trees to shadow the coffee shrubs; he built a water reservoir and a waste-water treatment facility; he maintains close control of everything from hand harvesting to sun-drying of the coffee beans; he personally supervises the hand-picking of the dried beans prior to packing. Results: zero defects coffee; certifications from BCS-OKO Garantie as organic, from Rain Forest Alliance and from JAS.

Several certified graders have cupped the Hacienda El Porvenir coffee and all coincide in giving this coffee excellent qualification.

Currently, this coffee is being exported to the USA and to Japan.

For more information go to: http://www.coffeeclubnetwork.com/redes/form/post?topico_id=672

=>> Part 2