Colombia - Canta Ranas

This 100% Chiroso microlot was produced by Edward Sandoval on his farm, Canta Ranas, which sits on the foothills of the Los Nevados active volcano and national park, close to the small town of Santa Isabel in the north of the Colombian state of Tolima.

Edward grew up on his parent’s coffee farm, El Mirador, as part of the small farming community of Santa Isabel. Edward’s father, Arsenio, inherited four hectares of land from his own father, whose larger estate was subdivided between Arsenio and his eight brothers after he passed away. Here, Edward and his brother Jorge, were taught the fundamentals of coffee production. The siblings went on to pursue careers in agriculture, with Edward focusing on coffee practices and quality assessment, and Jorge studying to become an agronomist. The family is close, and both Edward and Jorge have since established farms just a short drive away from their parent’s home.

At thirteen hectares, Canta Ranas is a relatively large estate for the area, where most farms average just three to four hectares. The land was initially established as a coffee farm in the early 1900s, but had been abandoned for many years when Edward purchased it in 2015. For the first five years of the farm’s operations, Edward relied on his brother and a hired administrator to oversee the daily tasks. During this time, he continued to work for the FNC and eventually relocated to Guatemala to work for international coffee exporter OLAM. In 2020, prompted by the pandemic, he and his family decided it was time to return to Santa Isabel and focus full time on the production of high-quality coffee.