Maria came to Gigante nine years ago because of violence and conflicts elsewhere. Using savings and a bank loan, she bought La Esperanza farm in partnership with Elias and Isaias Lizcano. Elias is her father-in-law and he helps her to manage the farm and is in charge of all the quality inspections.
Maria, alongside bags of coffee ready for transport. Photo: Caravela Coffee
At 1,700 metres above sea-level, La Esperanza is a relatively high altitude crop and has a total area of around nine hectares.
Last year she produced around 1,100kg of AA, AA+, AAA, and now ML, a grade which recognises microlots of very high quality coffee.
La Esperanza sits 1,700 metres above sea-level and is around nine hectares. After this year’s pruning to prevent leaf rust and ensure healthy future crops, she has 1,600 caturra trees in production and 2,000 castillo trees.
For Maria, the move from commodity coffee to specialty coffee was a great way to improve her life: the money she has received has helped to pay some of her debts and also to better provide for her family. Before focusing on specialty coffee she says it was difficult to take care of her farm because of a lack of money, but she’s now able to fertilise and make all roya (leaf rust) controls on time, further improving the quality of her crop.
Photo: Caravela Coffee
She’s proud to be producing specialty coffee and says she has learned a great deal. After studying the PECA education program run by our sourcing partners Caravela, Maria has better practices for managing the farm, with the higher quality crops being recognised by the market with much better prices.
Maria wants to improve in every lot she produces and hopes to continue having coffee that reaches ML (microlot) grades.
Photo: Caravela Coffee
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Ethical, traceable sourcing
This page has all the sourcing information (variety, process, region, story, importer, and more) that our importers share with us, and give us permission to use.
The transparency helps us talk confidently about the quality and background of our product, and it helps you know exactly what you’re buying.
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Coffee page transparency legend
Our coffee philosophy
Our business approach
Fresh harvest coffee
We only source and roast coffee from each country’s latest harvest season (so the green coffee is never older than 1 year from the time of picking, processing and packing). This ensures the sensory qualities are always at their peak and unaffected by excessive ageing.
Roasted for espresso and filter (best enjoyed black)
Roast style: omni. Omni roasts are designed to brew and taste great both as espresso and filter. Our omni single origins generally sit on Agtron values in the ~70-60 value range. So, technically, they are somewhere in the lighter side of the medium spectrum.
Designed for espresso and filter brewing. Best enjoyed black.
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Our Loring Kestrel S35 roaster
Our roasting style and approach
Best brewed within days 15-49 post-roast
The ‘fresh is best’ saying doesn’t apply to coffee (contrary to popular belief). Waiting before opening and brewing your bag of whole coffee beans helps develop peak flavour and acidity.
But heads up: if you buy pre-ground coffee, brew it as soon as possible.
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Our recommended brewing window
Try our custom brewing recipes
Our recipes and ratios are tailored to our coffee sourcing and roasting styles, bringing the best flavour and feel out of each coffee.
For pour over, immersion, and other filter brewing styles, check our brew guides.
For our espresso single origins, we recommend a coffee:yield ratio of 1:3:
- Dose: 20g ground coffee
- Yield: 60g espresso
- Total brew time: ~24-28 seconds
This is just a starting point! We encourage you to experiment, taste, and adjust to find the recipe that you enjoy the most.
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Our espresso brew guide (single origin)
Brewing ratio calculator
Packaging and sustainability
- Bags: ABA-certified home compostable (AS 5810-2010)
- Labels: recyclable
- Valves (only on +250g bags): general waste
- Box and tape (online orders): recyclable
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Our packaging