El Paraiso is brand created to highlight Tarqui and its producers. It is a municipa-lity in the
southwest of the department of Huila, with the Magdalena River passing nearby the town itself.
The main economic activities are cattle while crop wise it has production of sugar cane, corn,
grape, plantain, yuca, and citrus such as oranges, lime, and others. Coee is another important
factor in the municipali-ty with the farms found in the rural areas towards the mountains.
Tarqui is composed of 54 veredas – a subdivision of a municipality in Colombia – of which 37
produce coee with an approximate number of 3,305 Hectares dedicated to the production of
coee.
The people of Tarqui are kind, joyful and hardworking. It is a place with dierent soil conditions
where dierent coee varieties can be found. Normally the farms found here have forests or
water springs which showcases the rich ecosystem where coee is produced. These conditions
make it ideal for coee production and hence the name of the brand which in English means
The Paradise.

The producers that contribute to El Paraiso are all from Tarqui with farms that range from 1 to
5 Hectares. Something interesting to highlight is that most of them work as a family, where
each member plays a role in the production of coee. Another aspect to highlight about these
producers is their dedication and passion, but above all the love they put into producing quality coee.
Since the brand was created and more producers have contributed to it, a change has been
seen at their farms with improvements at the wet mill and expansion of the drying areas. The
producers have also gained more knowledge on dierent aspects such as processing, cherry
picking, fermentation, drying, identification of plagues and diseases with the help of the PECA
agronomist.
Another important factor that has been noticed during these years is how the women at the
farms have become more involved in the processing of the coee, learning about the dierent
stages of production. There has been a clear change from one single farmer managing the
farm to a family enterprise.

The coee that contributes to El Paraiso is harvested and processed on
micro-mills on each farm. The process for this coee starts with a manual
cherry picking focused on picking the ripe cherries and in some cases, they
make a manual selection of the cherries before pulping the same day. At the
wet mill, in each farm, the cherries are pulped without water after which the
beans are traditionally left to ferment in open-air tanks for an average time of
24 hours. Following this step, the coee beans are washed in average 2 to 3
times. For drying, the beans are taking to parabolic covered patios or raised
covered beds and the drying time depends on the farm which can go from 15
to 20 days.
The final parchment coee is sometimes stored in the farm for one to two
weeks. A sample is taken by the coee grower and delivered to the purchasing
station to be analyzed by the Quality Analyst. Here it goes through a rigorous
physical analysis first to measure moisture level, water activity and the yield
factor. After, it undergoes through the sensory analysis which will finally determine the quality grade of the coee. Then, the coee grower will bring the
coee to the warehouse to sell it depending on the feedback of the physical
and sensory analysis. From the warehouse, the parchment coee is sent to
Caravela’s Dry Mill in Armenia where it is processed and sent to port.