There was nothing here.

He arrived having bought a small farm with no crops on it. It took him two and a half years to plant the coffee. Today Villa Gloria yields three specialty coffees at 1,550 metres, and it is a family business.

From cherry to cup

Red and green coffee cherries on the branch
The cherry, on the branch
Hands sorting coffee cherries in a bucket of water
Flotation: what sinks is good
Hulled green coffee beans on a table
Green coffee, ready for roasting

Processing photographs from the Experiencia Cafetera archive in Pijao.

The seven trades

In an ordinary coffee brand there are five different actors behind the bag. Here the answer is one family: León Campo, Ana and their children — four of them, two working the farm. A family business, as they describe it themselves.

The land this coffee comes from

Aerial view of the coffee valley around Pijao
The valley, from above
Coffee trees on a slope under shade trees
Coffee trees under shade, on the slope
Dusk over the coffee valley
The valley at dusk

Coffee landscape around Pijao, from the Experiencia Cafetera archive.

No two lots taste the same

Villa Gloria isn't a single flat plot: it climbs from the river to the top of a mountain, between 1,300 and 1,700 metres. That difference in altitude gives every microlot its own character. In official cupping by the SGR/TÚ&YO/CINGTAGRO program, backed by the Quindío government (2021), its samples scored between 82.75 and 84 out of 100 — specialty-coffee territory.

Pijao, the town

Pijao's main square from the air, with the church tower and the mountains
The square and the church, mountains behind
The church tower of Pijao with a rainbow
The tower, after the rain
A street in Pijao with yellow façades and blue doors
The doors of Pijao

The farm sits just outside Pijao, one of the towns of Colombia's Coffee Cultural Landscape. The coffee comes down to town every eight days.

Who else has told this story

CNN, “My Colombia”, 2018 — on camera, among his coffee trees.

Señal Colombia, 2019 — interviewed him on his farm.

Lonely Planet, 2018 — recommends him.