On the northern regions of Pichincha in Ecuador, you’ll find the canton of Quito, which has an important culture of coffee and technical coffee producers. One such producer is Ricardo Vargas with his farm Vallejito.

Ricardo’s story in coffee started some years back when he was working as a food engineer in the private sector. While there, he always got asked by his father-in-law to help on his coffee farm with processing and planting of trees. This, alongside his father-in-law’s ideals of creating jobs for the area through coffee and seeing the potential of specialty coffee, created in Ricardo the passion and desire to have his own farm. Time passed, and in 2014, he decided to start his own farm with his wife and named in memory of his father-in-law who had passed away. Since he started, it has always been about specialty coffee and attention to detail. For example, when processing coffee, he keeps a record of temperature and brix grades to achieve the right fermentation and subsequently dries the coffee for 3 to 4 weeks for a slow drying that allows the flavor to develop. Specialty coffee has meant for him more care, and as such, he has improved the general infrastructure, such as drying stations, wet mill, and looking for the right trees for shade. This attention to detail has brought more income and, in return, a better quality of life for his family. It is and has been a point of pride for him to build what he has with his family and make a piece of land productive with his coffee known worldwide. His current challenge is to maintain profitability and quality while having a goal of increasing the area of coffee, planting some Bourbon Sidra variety, and renewing part of his plants.