Amparo Extended Fermentation - Colombia
The Coffee
Region: Alto Barcinal, Santuario, Risaralda.
Owner: Amparo Restrepo
Varietal(s): Supremo
Processing method: Extended Fermentation Honey
Elevation: 1730m masl
The Story
In Amparo’s own words: “To produce this coffee we collected ripe and over ripe cherries of the highest quality, which were then taken to ferment for sixty hours, before being pulped and once again, fermented for another 60 hours, followed by drying in the sun for about 20 days. After that, it was packed, milled, and dispatched."
El Encanto is Luz Amparo Restrepo Fernandez’s home and originally belonged to her grandparents, who were from, and the likes of Andes, Jerico and Tamesis in Antioquia, further North. They were the pioneers in these lands, the original colonists of 25 hectares of land, of which Amparo still conserves 10 to this day.
They started out with pasture and her farther (their son-in-law) took a small area of the farm corresponding to Amparo’s mother’s birthright and planted it with coffee. With that coffee, he was then able to buy out his other 9 in-laws and went on to plant coffee on the entire farm. He was fortunate that coffee was booming at the time and, despite there being no coffee collection point in Santuario at that time he would make the forty-something kilometre round trip to sell his coffee in Viterbo by mule.
Amparo is a third-generation farmer, and her son Luis Felipe is the fourth. They came back to live at the farm full time two years ago, after inheriting five years ago, following the passing of her father. She adores this gift, because despite not having a huge fortune her father was able to build a legacy: Finca El Encanto. The farm holds a special place for her family, it is where they all grew up.
Today, she has the farm planted with coffee as well as 1000 Hass avocado trees. Having lived most of her adult life in town, it has become increasingly difficult to find people to work with, someone to conscientiously manage the farm, knowing that coffee is not currently a high yield crop.
Amparo has tired grown tired of society, the hustle and bustle of town yearning for some peace and tranquillity now that she is more mature. She originally meant to stay for a year, but it has been over two years now and she has never once considered going back. She feels happy here.
She has a modest animal sanctuary for dogs, doing her best to give them an enjoyable life.
At the farm, they have Caturra, Supremo, Cenicafe varieties and some other bits and bobs.
Despite the difficulties of growing coffee and those presented by the coffee Federation, and the agricultural sector in Colombia, she is proud to be here, she feels happy and believes that the highest happiness is to transmit to her children that this is a wonderful existence, that’s worth the graft and while it’s not easy, it provides a peace that is not easy to find elsewhere. This is the lifestyle that she has found she loves.