Colombia: Pastor Ordonez
Pastor Ordonez grows some of the nicest coffees we've ever roasted! His Pink bourbon is sweet and floral, it sparkles in the cup. We really love it!
Pastor is a third generation coffee producer from San Agustin, tracing his lineage back to some of the earliest days of coffee production in the area. Now 50 years old, he’s spent his entire life since the age of 18 growing coffee, and has come to establish himself as a respected grower. He has spent over 30 years farming on on one leg and crutches.
Don Pastor has played an instrumental role in the development of specialty coffee in his area. He was an original member of the now famous Los Naranjos Association, a group of small producers who bound together to find a better market access and stable prices for their coffee as early as the year 2000.
Despite this progress, he only achieved the sale of his coffee as a single producer microlot in 2018, having sold all his coffee prior to then as part a blended lot.
Don Pastor is now focused on creating direct and stable relationships with roasters and small scale importers, rather than selling all his coffee in a blend to larger exporters. And he hopes this will also help get his name known on the international level as a coffee producer of great quality, which he rightfully is.
And we at The Artery are thrilled to be able to get to play a small part in making such a relationship a reality. And we are so happy that Semilla Coffee introduced us to Don Pastor and his coffee and we look forward to many more years of having it on our menu. And once you taste it, you'll no doubt agree!
Pastor's farm sits at 1800 meters above sea level, and it's simply stunning. For his processing method, cherries are picked at peak ripeness, then left for 8 hours in sealed bags before being placed in the hopper and left for another 12 hours. The cherries are then released through the depulper and left to dry ferment for 36 hours. The coffee is then washed 3-5 times and moved directly to raised drying beds (these beds enjoy one of the nicest vistas in the world!). The coffee dries for between 18-30 days, depending on the sun exposure. When the sun is very strong, a sliding roof is moved over to give more shade and slow drying.
We intend to buy coffee from Pastor for as long as we can, as there are too many reasons not to. We love it and what Don Pastor has built for himself and the community in Huila. It's an honour to get to work with him and his counterparts in the region!