Description
Villa Lara is a coffee farm in the village of Yerabuena in the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia that embraces all aspects of sustainability and fosters not only a sense of belonging to a responsible community but presents opportunities for its workers to successfully advance in their individual life paths. Our new Villa Lara Castillo is a single-varietal coffee that is the result of the stewardship of Villa Lara’s owners, Jonathan Lara Parke and Beatriz Gomez Cala.
After a 10-day vacation to Colombia in 2004, Jonathan Lara Parke impulsively decided to take early retirement as a Special Education Teacher in Vermont, USA, and explore new horizons. His Spanish, at the time, was limited to a half dozen words, and his only experience with coffee was drinking it on occasion.
Beatriz, Jonathan’s wife, a native Colombian, grew up in the rural area of Socorro where she worked on her grandparent’s farm before moving to Bogotá to obtain her degree in Business Administration and eventually work for an international company.
Jonathan and Beatriz’s paths crossed in a restaurant and they were married several years later. In 2010 they bought an abandoned farm roughly a 4 hours drive from Bogotá.
Beatriz continued to work in the city while Jonathan worked on building their home to have the basics: running water, bathroom, and kitchen in working condition. Their idea at the time was to have a small working/recreational farm and raise some beef cattle while remaining based in Bogotá where Beatriz would continue working as an administrator and Jonathan would be involved in educational consulting.
However, a chance meeting with an agronomist with the National Federation of Coffee Growers steered them toward an incentive program to revitalize Colombia’s Coffee Industry. Over the next several years Jonathan and Beatriz started planting what would eventually amount to 45,000 coffee plants. At first, the focus was to produce a volume of “good quality coffee,” but it soon became obvious that their attention to detail and desire for perfection was more suited to producing micro-lots of high-quality coffee.
Villa Lara not only produces quality coffee; they are focused on social issues and environmental sustainability. Vila Lara is fully compliant with (and in many cases exceeds) all labor laws and guidelines. Living conditions are excellent and their workers are treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve. Villa Lara also recycles everything possible, keeps nearly 35% of the farm for conservation, and has planted over 6,000 trees not only as shade for the coffee plants but to protect sensitive wildlife habitats and vital watersheds.
Finca Villa Lara currently has 3,700 trees growing Tabi variety and 33,170 Castillo variety. An additional 3,682 trees have been planted within the coffee in order to provide shade, organic matter, and soil conservation.
Choose your roast!
Light Roast is great for pour-over or drip if you enjoy more of the sweetness and subtle acidity a coffee presents.
Our medium roast brings more of the nutty and chocolate flavors forward and is extremely versatile for cold-brewed or hot brewed coffee drinks.
the darkest roast we offer of this origin has developed more of the rich chocolate flavors. It’s perfect for anyone who enjoys a dark roast coffee as well as someone who enjoys a medium roast.
Pick your Colombia Finca Villla Lara grind
If you have a coffee grinder at home we suggest you choose the whole bean option. To read more about whole bean or pre-ground coffee click here.
Our Northside Coffee pour over grind is best for anyone who enjoys manual brew methods. We choose a more fine grind to ensure the best extraction using any pour-over method.
If you have an automated drip machine, choose the drip grind option. We set this grind to produce a high-quality cup of coffee on all automatic coffee brewers.
The cold-brew grind option is our most coarse grind. Since the cold brew extraction method takes a longer time, the large grind allows for more surface area and balanced extraction.
Our Northside Coffee espresso grind is dialed in for our machine at our cafe downtown. It might not be as compatible with every espresso machine so we recommend for most espresso drinkers grind it themselves. We know that may not be an option for everyone so we will provide a fine grind for your convenience.
We hope you enjoy your coffee and appreciate your feedback.
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