In an interview, we had Jorge Elias Rojas, a specialty coffee producer who showed us his experience of 20 years cultivating varietals such as Geisha, Pink Borbon, Wush Wush, Tabi, Pacamara, and Caturron, finding in them a better way of life for him and his family as well as for his farm by producing these varietals.
His farm is located in Tolima at an altitude of 1.900 meters. This coffee producer focuses on the origins and the specialty, he is immensely proud of the quality of his coffee, interested in the final flavor in the cup and how this is transferred to the consumer.
According to Jorge "coffees of origin allow the consumer to understand what is behind a specific coffee profile, and the love and passion that each coffee grower puts into the process".
Specialty, according to Jorge Elias, is a long road that many times is seen as an opportunity to generate greater profitability or as the solution to the challenges that coffee growing imposes on a daily basis; however, recognizing what makes us different and what generates added value is sometimes difficult. Jorge began to work with coffee at the age of 13, in view of the fact that his family had coffee trees but did not have them as their main crop, so he took the initiative to do so. From that early age, Jorge began to learn about the best varieties, as well as about the fermentation and drying processes.
In this way he began to make changes in his coffee plantations, from basic varieties such as Colombia and Castilla to specialty varieties such as Bourbon and Geisha, resulting in 20 years of experience in the world of specialty coffee and specialty coffees such as Pink Bourbon La Roca with a 36-hour washing process with anaerobic fermentation.
