Javier Rojas

The Producer

Finca El Hospital was founded in 2007 by Javier Pencue Rojas, a first generation coffee farmer. The farm is near Sinai in Guadalupe town, in Colombia’s Huila region. Across 4 hectares they have planted various coffee cultivars, primarily Caturra and Pink Bourbon, totalling around 15,000 coffee trees situated at 1,780 metres above sea level. There are two permanent workers employed year round for various field work duties, with another six seasonal workers joining Javier on the farm during harvest. 

Their Approach

Coffee cherries are manually harvested once ripe and red, or a deep blushing pink in the case of the Bourbon Rosado cultivar. They are then floated in large tubs to skim off the less dense cherries. After this they are fed through a depulping machine to remove the coffee cherry skins, and spend 24 hours dry fermenting in a clean, tiled tank. After this initial fermentation stage the tank is covered with a tarp to ferment in an oxygen depleted environment for a further 40 hours, before it is washed and scrubbed, moved to another tank and washed again. The coffee is put to dry under parabolic shade coverings for up to 15 days, depending on the climate. 

The beautiful terrain, high altitude, choice cultivars, double fermentation and double washing of the coffee all combine to create a coffee with complex fruit notes, aromatic spices and herbs, and a layered sweetness. 

The Exporter

Javier is a member of Coocentral, a co-operative based in Huila. Growers associated with Coocentral tend to have just a few hectares, tending to their coffee on farms across various veredas or wards in Huila such as Gigante, Garzon, Guadalupe, Suaza, Tarqui, El Pital and Agrado. Around 2,000 or so of these smallhold farmers reliably deliver their dried parchment to the co-op to the various collection sites across the region. As well as receiving premium payments for quality lots the co-op are providing technical support and training and have invested millions of dollars into social impact initiatives relating to education, healthcare support, infrastructure development, insurance and pensions.