Colombia | La Candela

Finca La Candela sits in Titiribí, in the village of La Loma del Guamo, where Alberto Lotero and Gloria Cano have ra... Read More

Finca La Candela sits in Titiribí, in the village of La Loma del Guamo, where Alberto Lotero and Gloria Cano have raised three generations of coffee — and, alongside it, a family. What started as a smaller plot grew, over eight years, into 10,000 trees across the Antioquian hills between 1,600 and 1,800 meters. Their two daughters and son grew up on the land, and the care shows up in every cherry that comes off it.

This is our second harvest with the Lotero Cano family, and our third year working with Yolima Taborda Rojas of Paisa Coffee — the producer-led importing group she founded in 2015 to help family farms like La Candela move beyond commodity pricing and into traceable, fairly paid partnerships. Yolima visited our roastery last year, walked us through Paisa's mission, and introduced us to the people behind every bag we've sourced since. Her brother Germán joined the operation in 2024, and the relationship has only deepened.

This year's lot is natural-processed with combined fermentation — 50 hours aerobic, then 12 hours anaerobic — Red and Yellow Castillo varietals, slow-built to amplify the fruit and let the cup get a little wild.