La Vega
Colombia

The Guarnizo family consists of ten siblings who manage a collective of farms in the Tarqui highlands. Wilmar Guarnizo took over La Vega in 2002 and has since acted as the family leader, educating his siblings in specialty coffee production. Today, the operation is a family-wide effort: Wilmar manages the trees and forest conservation with his brothers, while his wife Tania and their daughter oversee cherry selection, fermentation and drying.

The coffee is harvested through selective manual picking, often with all ten siblings collaborating across their respective farms. Once picked, the cherries are hand-sorted and fermented under the supervision of Tania and her daughter. After being washed, the parchment is moved to drying stations where it is carefully monitored until it reaches peak moisture content.