This September, we visited El Vergel Estates in Fresno, Tolima. El Vergel is managed by the Bayter brothers, Shady and Elias. They have been involved in farming since their childhood, following their parents footsteps who started with growing avocados. In 2012, the Bayter brothers ventured into the world of coffee and fell in love with it.

When we arrived at their processing facility, they were having 15 coffee producers gather there and taste their own coffee for the first time. They are a part of the El Vergel partner series program. The El Vergel team teaches them how to process better coffee, gives them sensory training and helps them sell their coffee with a fair price. 

Elias who is in charge of processing is very passionate about coffee processing. He loves experimenting with different processing methods. He showed us around the processing facility and we were impressed with their good practices. 

The second day, Shady and Elias showed us around the farm where they plant Gesha, Bourbon, Java, Pacamara, Caturra and some other varieties. All coffee trees are well planted and taken good care of. It is harvest season in September in Tolima. Farmers go pick up coffee cherries 3 to 4 times throughout the whole harvest season and deliver to the processing facility. 

We cupped coffees from both El Vergel Estates and their partner series program. The Gesha from El Vergel were all with outstanding quality. We were super excited that Elias will do a customized Carbonic Maceration washed Gesha just for BlendIn. This coffee will soon be ready and arrive in Houston! 

We were also amazed by a partner series coffee, super intense floral notes, sweet fruit aroma and complex flavor. It was produced by Silvio and Aura. Shady shared their story with us. Silvio and Aura from Cunidamarca, Colombia, own a small coffee farm that has been producing coffee for five years. Silvio was very passionate about coffee but sadly, he passed away two years ago. Aura was saddened by the loss of her husband but wanted to continue the legacy of coffee that he left behind. Last year, she sold her coffee to coffee cooperative with very low price. This year, Aura came to Shady with her Gesha and hoped that they can help her sell the coffee that Silvio had been growing for years. Although Aura only had 9kg of this coffee, we immediately decided to bring it back and share it with our customers!