Grown With Care at Finca San Luis

Omar Arango has been growing and milling coffee for years at his small farm, Finca San Luis.

Located in Líbano, Colombia, his farm specializes in painstakingly handcrafted microlots.

In September 2009, he had a lucky meeting with Colleen Anunu, Gimme's Director of Coffee, at the Colombian ExpoEspeciales, where they talked and laid the groundwork for a partnership.

When his next harvest came in, Arango worked with Virmax exporters to get it directly to Gimme. In the first year of that partnership, Gimme has bought three of Omar's microlots, each one delicious and unique.

From the time the seed is planted to the moment when it's shipped off to the roastery, Omar makes thousands of choices that affect the final flavor of the bean — and it's a hands-on process from start to finish.

He has just completed the process of Organic certification for the coffees he grows on his farm; his latest microlot is the first one to be certified organic on his own, rather than with a larger coop.

He uses worm composting to turn coffee pulp into rich soil ...

... and manual removal of weeds instead of pesticides.

Coffee trees bloom, and then sprout plump cherries.

The cherries are picked by hand to ensure that each one is perfectly ripe.

Having a mill on site means that the cherries are processed with no delay. Here, they're depulped ...

... then washed ...

... then dried on his drying beds. With all the care Omar puts into this coffee, it's no wonder that every lot is sweet and delicious.