Medium Roast
Farmed Naturally
Traded Fairly
Flavor Notes: Brown sugar sweetness, nutty, chocolate
Jorge is a third-generation farmer and grew up visiting his grandpa’s and parents’ coffee farms. He studied to be a veterinarian in Guatemala and still works part-time as a vet in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.
Jorge and his wife Vanessa owned a smaller farm for several years; he bought Finca Tierra de Leyendas in 2011 with the dream of growing a large and successful coffee farm (Tierra de Leyendas translates to “Land of Legends”). At the time, half of the property had been stripped to be used for cattle grazing and planting sugar cane, so Jorge worked to replant trees throughout the farm and decided to plant coffee below half of the remaining forest and leave the other half as a protected reserve.
He loves growing coffee because it provides so much employment. He started with 5 full-time employees and now has 30 full-time employees and 120 pickers during the harvest. He is proud to pay better than most in the area and see how the lives of his employees have improved. He told me, ‘I know the homes of my employees, and I have seen how they have improved over the years. That is what makes it all worth it for him.
Jorge is a strong Christian and is very involved in the Great Commission church in Tegucigalpa and the Great Commission Foundation (https://grancomision.org/). He is currently on the leadership team for the church and oversees 8 discipleship groups.