When I arrived at Cafe Döga I met Francini Vargas sitting on the doorstep enjoying the afternoon sun. At 3 pm sunshine at this time of year is unusual, more usual is torrential rain. As the harvest has not yet begun Francini had time to talk about the mill and the family fincas.
Café Döga was founded in 2003 as a family project to optimize the processing of the high quality cherries coming from their family fincas, now in the fourth generation. The plant now processes around 1500 quintales of specialty coffee yearly. Traditionally Catuai represents a large part of the production but the farm is also active testing other varieties as a response to climate changes and also market requirements. Processing is natural and honey. Remarkable though is the production without water (apart from initial cleaning) in the interest of environment protection.
Production is largely for export, so I was not expecting to see a modern roaster and a variety of freshly roasted beans, well packaged for direct sales.
Since then I have tried several varieties and will certainly be back for more. fact, Cafe Döga is not alone in this trend. Experience with roasting enables producers to understand the needs of roasters in other countries and can thus tailor their production for each market. This is a major step forward and certainly leads to high quality products.
I will be back to follow the harvest and processing and hopefully to obtain some samples of the new harvest.
Oh, I forgot. The name „Döga“ contains is neither Spanish nor German but is a word stemming from the indigenous population and means something like „let it into your heart“.
This is part of an ongoing series exploring coffee fincas and their approaches to production, innovation, and sustainability in the face of changing times