Finca Los Laureles II

Mario Roberto Sosa was born in 1927 and started his working life in 1939. In 1947 he bought a truck, establishing a local transportation business, before marrying Raquel Lopez and going on to raise seven sons. Mario and Raquel started growing coffee in 1966 and in 1972 established Los Laureles II, planting the farm with cultivars traditionally used in the area - Pache, Caturra and Bourbon. They added Maragogype and Gesha a few years ago and have been planting Anacafe and Marsellesa alongside avocado recently. Different cultivars have different requirements in terms of climate and maintenance, which can make dealing with the variety on the farm tricky. However, there are advantages of having multiple cultivars on one farm. The crops come in at slightly different times across the season which expands the time that revenue is generated, and they have unique flavour characteristics which means a potentially larger and diverse range of buyers interested in the coffee. At 95, after a working life spanning 83 years, Mario is still very much on the farm, supervising the care of the trees and the harvest with the support of his sons.