Colombia Cajamarca Alexander Mancilla

Alexendar Mancilla grew up picking other people's coffee at farms near his home, working as a day labor wherever needed. From that work he was able to eventually save enough money to buy his small farm in Cajamarca, Toima. With help from his wife, Orfanelly, and their one son, they manage their 4 hectare farm, Finca El Guamo, named for the local variety of tree that is commonly used to shade coffee. Their farm is planted in Variedad Colombia and Castillo, and sits at a high altitude part of Cajamarca that reaches 1900 meters above sea level. Like most in the region, this is a traditional wet process coffee, where the fruit is removed using small pulpers, and then washed away with fermentation and clean water. The coffee is dried in a covered "parabolico" drying room, that's sort of like a greenhouse with good airflow in order to protect the coffee from wet weather.