When you think of innovation, transformation and commitment, you think of the Herrera family. Over the years they have grown in the coffee world and each generation has shown that passion, assurance, and being kind which are the fundamental pillars of the family and they have worked to instill them to each member of the Café Granja La Esperanza team. Today there are already four generations of the Herrera family that has been involved in the world of coffee.
The story began more than 80 years ago, when Blanca Ligia Correa and Juan Antonio Herrera got married and started a household with 14 children. They left Armenia and traveled by mule to Caicedonia, a small town in Valle del Cauca, where they bought a farm called Potosí. In this farm, they started a crop of Yellow Bourbon, Red Bourbon, and Caturra, it was at this moment, when Café Granja La Esperanza was born. Alfonso Jose is part of the second generation, he says that Potosí was the place where the second generation began to learn and work with coffee. His parents began to grow Arabica coffee from the house down, he remembers how his family started to grow the farm.
The third generation was born at the Potosí farm, where they learned and fell in love with the world of coffee. Their passion for coffee and innovation led them to grow organic coffee, specialty coffees, and acquire new farms such as Las Margaritas and La Esperanza. They began to deeply believe in their work and thus their dream grew with the crops in different areas of Colombia. In 2003, they decide to export the specialty coffees and the best and most exclusive regional coffees of the country. In 2007, Rigoberto Herrera and Luis Herrera had the opportunity to manage a farm in Panama, where they produced Geisha Coffee. They participated in the Best of Panama and won with the Geisha coffee coming in at first place. This recognition allowed them to visualize the potential of this product and motivated them even more to crop special coffees in Colombia.
After a few years, the fourth generation of the Herrera family started to work on the Café Granja La Esperanza dream. The fourth generation is full of new ideas, but they don’t forget that innovation, quality and being friendly is the essence of their DNA. Among the new things they have been implementing the online sale of specialty coffees, and this year they will launch new projects so that all coffee lovers meet Café Granja La Esperanza and can enjoy the products and processes they are developing.
Thank you for reading our story, we invite you to be part of it!