Ecuador - Quito, Pichincha

Fausto Romo owns the 6-hectare farm Finca Carolina, where there are 3 hectares planted in coffee.

Fausto credits much of his success to how well the variety “Sidra” performs in his region. Fausto is infatuated with the resulting flavor and aroma of this variety and says it seems to be meant to live in Ecuador.

Fausto shared some of his origin story with us:

Originally I had 10 female cows and 1 bull. They were pure bread Holstein cows from Colombia with a production of 140 liters per 2 weeks.

Then I had an uncle who’s name was Olmedo Romo and he grew coffee. One day he told me plant one hectare of coffee, Sidra is a good variety and I planted 3 hectares of Sidra then.

I then didn’t have money for the farm because I had to invest money for 2 years so I had to sell 5 cows.

When the coffee started to ripen. After 2 years the financial issues at home started to fade away because we had our coffee to sell.

It’s a very fulfilling day to see the trees flowering. You can appreciate the aromas at a distance, and you see the bees how they pick up the honey from the flowers.