Colombian Coffee - Lifework of Many Small Farmers

The Andes Mountains of Colombia with their mild temperatures, fertile soils and heavy rainfall, are ideal for the cultivation of that most flavorful and aromatic coffee variety known as arabica. The final key ingredients are the patient, traditional ways of the cafetero, the Colombian small farmer. Juan Valdez represents the more than 400,000 small owner-growers who individually cultivate each coffee tree, carefully hand picking the berries and processing them in the traditional manner.

The average coffee plantation has less than 8 acres, and it gives work to a whole family. Usually, three generations of the family are required
to give to every tree, every berry and every bean that care which makes your morning cup of coffee so delicious. The unending cycle of Colombian coffee growing begins with the finest and most fertile beans, carefully selected and hand planted in a shady corner of the plantation. From this nursery the trees are transferred to the plantation when they are about a year old to replace trees that are damaged or have passed bearing age. At four years of age they burst into bloom with the promise of the first berries that are to appear six months later. Once mature, the trees produce for many years.

When the berries begin to ripen to their bright red color they must be harvested by hand, for on a given branch they ripen at different times. During harvest periods the whole family will work from dawn until night gathering the berries that are just at the point of full ripeness, before they begin to ferment and taint the taste of the beans within. An older experienced picker can harvest some 200 pounds of berries a day. No machine can replace the eye and the hand of the coffee farmer. It is a source of great pride and responsibility for these hardy men and their families.

At the plantation the berries are depulped and then soaked in cold mountain water to loosen the outer covering of the bean. At the correct moment they are spread out to dry, sacked, and carried to the local village, where the grower trades with the coffee buyers. The crop is graded and weighed, a deal is struck, and the grower returns to his land to begin the process again. Herein lies the greatness of that great man with the sacks of coffee, Juan Valdez: he has 400,000 tough, independent faces, and the pride and will to succeed on his own.