We’ve been working with Pedro Echavarria, Jr. and his father for many years as one of our main exporter contacts. Pedro, Jr. and Pedro, Sr. have helped us source coffee for Creamery, and have helped us connect to farmers like the Over brothers and Pablo Emilio Montoya in northern Colombia, but they started out originally as farmers.
Pedro, Sr. originally began farming coffee in 1970 on an abandoned farm, and as his coffee output grew, so did his passion for coffee. When the family bought Lomaverde in the 90s, it was their goal to produce the best tasting coffee they could imagine. Lomaverde has extremely rich soil, so even at higher altitudes their coffee trees produce high yields.
After a terrible bout with coffee leaf rust in 2004, the farm switched to the resistant Colombia variety. However, in the last four years, Lomaverde has started planting the Chiroso variety. Pedro, Jr. had this to say:
“This variety was originally found in the town of Urrao, grown by Jose Arcadio Caro, our first allied producer in the area. He planted a variety that was growing popular, not because of its great cup profile, which was yet to be discovered, but because its high productivity in cold temperatures. Called Chiroso for its longer beans, this variety was made famous by him and Doña Carmen (a neighbor) both of whom placed well in the cup of excellence a couple of years in a row. When planting chiroso in Lomaverde, we decided to take seeds only from the taller tries to grow them in a small plot of the farm. This lot represents its first harvest.”
We've had the great honor to visit the Echavarria family's operation in the past, where Jared was even able to go horseback riding.
Not only does Pedro's family farm coffee and export coffee, they also run a local coffee roasting operation and cafe in Medellin. Their constant pursuit of coffee quality is unparalleled in the region, and their goals are to lift up all the coffee in Antioquia. It was Pedro, personally, who first tasted the Rivera family's coffees and knew they'd be a perfect fit for Ruby.
We're excited to take our relationship to the next level by featuring coffee from Lomaverde this year, and we're thrilled to be able to expand our relationship even further with both Pedros.