La Divina Providencia

Roberto Samuel Ulloa Vilanova bought La Divina Providencia over a decade ago. When Roberto took over the farm the land and trees were in poor condition having been abandoned in previous years because the extremely low coffee prices at that time drove the farm out of production. Since buying the farm, Roberto has rejuvenated the land and the trees, planting Kenya, Pacamara and Gesha as well as Red and Orange Bourbon. Roberto uses a tree-training method called 'parras' where the leader branch from a pruned trunk is bent almost 90 degrees and four lateral branches build the structure for future growth. Roberto has both red and orange bourbon growing on his farm. Bourbon is one of the only cultivars that comes in all three colours, ripening to yellow, orange or red depending on the seed. Roberto has installed three small pulpers on the farm: one that processes the bigger cherries from the Pacamara, another for the medium size beans (Bourbon and Gesha) and the last one which has stainless steel tanks used for traditional fermentation. Roberto can fine-tune each pulper for the size of the fruit from each area and varietal which results in the appropriate removal of the skin and pectin and the correct amount of pressure on the cherries and beans. The fine-tuning helps deliver good quality parchment through the processing system with less damaged or unpupled coffee making its way through. Roberto is putting a lot of effort into this ordinarily ordinary stage of the processing as he firmly believes these micro improvements in the system are reflected in the quality of the cup.