Hugo Gualaco
Farms eight hectares above San Adolfo in Huila. When leaf rust forced a replant in 2012 he held a block of Caturra back and isolated it, because he could see the variety disappearing.
- Farm or site
- La Vega
- Region
- San Adolfo, Huila
- Country
- Colombia
Hugo Gualaco farms La Vega, eight hectares above San Adolfo in Huila, with his wife and their two children. He's 43. His family has grown coffee his whole life, and he's been working with specialty for about eight years.
He came to it sideways. He studied through seventh grade in Ibagué, decided it wasn't for him, and went back to his grandparents in Huila, where an uncle pulled him into coffee. He started as a laborer on his uncle's and grandfather's farms. His grandfather gave him a thousand seedlings to plant and look after. That was the start of it. At twenty, he and his partner went looking for ground of their own and found a farm with almost nothing growing on it, then planted it out in Caturra.
In 2012 leaf rust took most of that. The obvious move was to replant to something resistant, and they did, largely to Bourbon Rosado. But Hugo had noticed Caturra was quietly disappearing from Colombia, so he held a block of it back and isolated it from the rest of the farm on purpose.
He's still studying. He goes to the cupping lab in Pitalito to learn to evaluate coffee properly, and he's working on his barista and roasting alongside it, on the theory that knowing what the cup should taste like changes how you farm.
Processing at La Vega is hand harvested, hand sorted and floated to pull the underripes, then fermented in tank near the wet mill for twelve hours or longer. What happens after that is Hugo's call, lot by lot.
He came to it sideways. He studied through seventh grade in Ibagué, decided it wasn't for him, and went back to his grandparents in Huila, where an uncle pulled him into coffee. He started as a laborer on his uncle's and grandfather's farms. His grandfather gave him a thousand seedlings to plant and look after. That was the start of it. At twenty, he and his partner went looking for ground of their own and found a farm with almost nothing growing on it, then planted it out in Caturra.
In 2012 leaf rust took most of that. The obvious move was to replant to something resistant, and they did, largely to Bourbon Rosado. But Hugo had noticed Caturra was quietly disappearing from Colombia, so he held a block of it back and isolated it from the rest of the farm on purpose.
He's still studying. He goes to the cupping lab in Pitalito to learn to evaluate coffee properly, and he's working on his barista and roasting alongside it, on the theory that knowing what the cup should taste like changes how you farm.
Processing at La Vega is hand harvested, hand sorted and floated to pull the underripes, then fermented in tank near the wet mill for twelve hours or longer. What happens after that is Hugo's call, lot by lot.
