Carlos Estrella

In the south of Colombia, on the mountainous region of Nariño, if you go towards the northwest, you’ll arrive to the municipality of La Union where coffee is the main economic activity. Here, taking the road towards the mountains we find Carlos Estrella at his farm La Estrella, with his wife Tania. Carlos has been in his coffee since he remembers as the farm he currently has, has been in the family since his great grandfather and the name of the farm has always stayed as it is, the surname of the family. He has been learning about coffee from his grandfather, father, and every day he is learning new things through workshops and neighbors. In 2010, Carlos started taking over his family’s farm focusing on high-quality coffee but still he works alongside his wife and kids, with his father still involved in the farm. Carlos is also very interested in learning about quality and as such learning how to cup to understand what makes his coffee great and what are the opportunities to improve upon on.

At the farm he has plantain, banana, orange, guadua, Pine, carbonero and balso for shade, and the other crop he has for income is avocado. Pertaining to varieties he has Caturra, Pink Bourbon, Colombia, Pacamara, Bourbon and Gesha. His biggest challenge is to be able to win Cup of Excellence with his short-term goals working on improving his drying area.