Darwin Vivanco

Darwin Vivanco lieves with his wife, Yeni Carmita, at their farm La Loma, located in the southern canton of Puyango. He comes from a family of coffee farmers, hence has been involved in coffee from a young age and developed a passion for it. His father played a key role in teaching him about the harvest and how to do it. In 1999, he started his own coffee production, and in 2020, he began producing specialty coffee. One of the main reasons that keeps him motivated is the better prices he can obtain and the resulting better quality of life. Since producing high-quality coffee, Darwin has improved several aspects of his process, such as fermentation and drying. He is always innovating, with the goal of obtaining a high-quality product. During this journey, he has received guidance from the PECA technician and has been able to improve his coffee process.

At the farm, Darwin is assisted by his wife, who handles post-harvest aspects such drying and final coffee sorting. When necessary, they hire local people for harvest matters, such as cherry picking and weeding. Darwin takes pride in the agroforestry system he has in place at the farm, which takes care of the environment with shade trees such as guabo, plantain, and citrus. His current challenges are to produce high-quality coffee consistently, improve his production, and establish himself as good producer in the area.

Darwin’s message to you is “You’re consuming a good quality coffee, harvested in an agroforestry system, and know that we are taken care of the environment.”

For his washed coffee process, Darwin starts with the manual cherry picking when they are ripe. Then, they are taken to the wet mill at the farm, where first they are first floated to remove any defective cherries and foreign material such as leaves. Afterwards, the cherries are pulped and placed in traditional tanks to ferment for a period of 24 hours. When the fermentation is complete, the coffee is washed and taken to the covered patios to dry for 8 to 15 days, depending on the climate.