This first time we purchased coffee from Yamid and his family, we thought his name was “Jamid” because it was spelled incorrectly on the first set of samples we received. Years later, when we finally visited, he laughed at the thought of a bag of his coffee with his name misspelled on it.
Nestled in the mountains of San Agustin, Huila, the Familia Quinayas works together to produce stellar coffee year after year. Three generations of the Quinayas family live and work together there in the hills. Yamid oversees the operation and sometimes his coffee is kept separate and sold under his name and other times it’s blended together with the rest of the family and sold as Familia Quinayas. Either way, it has been one of our favorites for years.
One of the most impressive elements is the infrastructure they have built to ensure consistency in quality. Among other measures, they’ve built a green house of sorts with multiple layers to dry the coffee in a controlled fashion. In a climate of regular rain and constant fog, this proves to be a wise course of action so their coffee is not at the mercy of capricious clouds.
Many don’t realize that it’s a lot of work to keep coffees separated as micro-lots from start to finish. If the price isn’t high enough, it doesn’t make financial sense for them to jump through all the hoops. Whichever way they decide each harvest, we’re thankful to have such delicious coffee from these lovely people, whatever the label says.