Coffee Alnitak AFRE

Rita Graciela Cohen is the owner of Finca Santa Rita, formerly known as Santa Gertrudis, she inherited the farm, which was previously called Finca Santa Gertrudis, from her parents, who started growing coffee on the farm around 1968, as the farm was previously a dairy farm.
The first species planted on the farm were the Guatemala varietal, which is characterised by tall stems and produces fruit in the canopy. A few years later Isidoro and Rita – Rita Graciela’s parents – continued to try new varietals and planted Borbón, finally they planted the Caturra and Catuaí varietals until 90% of the farm was covered. Five years after they started planting the coffee trees, they had their first harvest. When Rita Graciela’s parents died, she inherited the farm.

In 1968, Graciela Molina de Chinchilla donated part of her Santa Gertrudis farm to her daughter Graciela, retaining the usufruct for life. The farm was a cattle ranch, but they began to grow coffee with the help of her husband, Isidoro Cohen. After improvements and advice, the farm gained recognition for the quality of its coffee. In 2001, after Isidoro’s death, the farm passed into the hands of his daughter Rita Graciela and her husband, Fernando Castillo Ramírez where they decided to call it Santa Rita. Despite the climatic and processing challenges, they managed to maintain high quality standards and built a wet mill. In the 2010s, with production declining, they undertook a massive replanting to improve productivity. Today, after planting 6 hectares with grafted Catuaí varieties, Catuaí and Geisha continue to expand their coffee cultivation on the farm.