On the western skirt of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, there is a small town booming called Gigante in the region of Huila. Traveling through an unpaved road towards the mountains, you’ll arrive at El Prado, the farm of Jaime Casallas, where he lives with his wife Olimpa and son Jaime Andrés.
Jaime comes from a farmer’s family that primarily grew coffee. Since a young age, his father taught him about other crops, mainly coffee. It has been 55 years since 1967 when Jaime started his journey in producing his own coffee, and he has had the help of his wife, Olimpa, since then. In 2012, Jaime made the decision to seek high-quality coffee and make changes in his processes, introducing new varieties. In this endeavor, he has had the help of his son Jaime Andrés, who is now in charge of the farm, handling everything from planting new plants to processing and selling the coffee.
Since venturing into specialty coffee, the infrastructure of the farm has undergone significant changes. They have improved the wet mill and drying stations to enhance the processing capacity and quality. They have also made improvements to the house, resulting in better living conditions. The farm is truly a family endeavor, with everyone playing a key role in producing great quality coffee. Their goal is to reach a point where 100% of their production scores 86 points and above. To achieve this, they have also experimented with new varieties such as Java, Bourbon Sidra, and Pacamara to see how they perform under the farm’s agroclimatic conditions.
Jaime’s coffee processing starts with the selection of ripe cherries, which then undergo an in-cherry fermentation in the receiving recipient at the wet mill for around 12 hours. Afterwards, the cherries are pulped, and the resulting coffee beans are fermented in open-air tubs for 24 hours without water, followed by another 24 hours with water that barely covers the coffee mass. The beans are then washed once and taken to the covered drying beds, where they will reach the ideal moisture level in between 12 to 20 days, depending on the climate.
