Antonio agreed but unfortunately, Luis Alberto did yet have enough money, so he offered his job to pay for it. Five years of hard work later, Don Luis became the proud owner of La Perla del Otún in 1994. “I earned it with the sweat off my brow and honest work”, he says. He named his farm `the pearl’ because of the absolute beauty that surrounds it.

Luis Alberto carries out the harvest on his five-hectare farm with the help of his wife, Floridalid, their sons and a few local pickers. They carefully hand-select only the ripest cherries. Unlike most traditional Colombian coffee producers, who typically de-pulp their coffees and let them ferment for up to 24 hours, Luis harvests on Mondays, de-pulps the coffee at night and leaves it in the fermentation tanks. Rather than washing it on Tuesday morning, he de-pulps on Tuesday afternoon and adds any new beans that have been harvested that day to the pile of coffee that’s been fermenting since Monday. He thoroughly mixes the two days’ coffees together and keeps the coffee mass fermenting.

On Wednesday and Thursday he’ll repeat the process with the new harvested passes. He’ll wait till Friday evening to wash the whole lot before taking it out to dry on raised parabolic beds, making it a 96 hours total fermentation time.

Luis is an exceptional producer. In 2006, he won 1st place in the Colombian cup of excellence; a prize that allowed him to buy additional hectarage to increase his productions. Luis’s progressive approach to specialty coffee extends beyond the farm. He also attends the local SENA agricultural university to increase his knowledge about high-quality production.