ABOUT ASTRID MEDINA

We met Astrid at the first Acevedo Cup we participated in around six years ago. She was traveling with Alejandro Renjifo and his exporting company Fairfield Trading to share insights and techniques to producers in the region. She is highly ambitious, and constantly learning and improving year after year. Her main goals are to continue improving the quality of her coffee while minimizing adverse environmental impact. She is especially interested in sustainable farming practices using little or no chemical inputs, and improving soil health by planting native plants and trees. She has also started teaching her neighboring producers how to improve their quality and avail themselves to the specialty market. Her contribution to specialty coffee within the region of Gaitania cannot be overstated, and it is a true honor to work with her coffee.

ABOUT CATURRA

Caturra is a natural mutation of the Bourbon variety. It was discovered on a plantation in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil sometime between 1915 and 1918. Today, it is one of the most economically important coffees in Central America, to the extent that it is often used as a benchmark against which new cultivars are tested. In Colombia, Caturra was thought to represent nearly half of the country’s production before a government-sponsored program beginning in 2008 incentivized renovation of over three billion coffee trees with the leaf rust resistant Castillo variety (which has Caturra parentage).