Shokunin exclusive. After returning to her parents’ farm to continue the family trade, Ana Restrepo decided to transform her coffee into a specialty grade experience. I first met Ana at a cupping in Cali that was organized by Juan Pablo Argote. Her coffee wasn’t yet at the level I needed, but it stood out from the table for its potential. Especially after we spoke, it was clear how driven she was to improve her farm and look ahead. That combination inspired me to start working with her. The first time I visited her farm, in 2019, it gave me a clear picture of how she works and it was clear immediately that the approach I had developed with Argot could not simply be copied. Every farm has its own challenges, and with Ana we had to find solutions specific to her land and her processes. Our collaboration started small, with just 200 kilos flown in by air freight. Over time, the volumes have grown to around 2400 kilos, still imported directly by Shokunin. Part of it I roast myself, and part I sell as green coffee to other roasters so Ana can scale up her exports. The rest of Ana’s harvest is sold locally. What began as a small experiment has now become a steady Shokunin exclusive. Today Ana’s coffee shows exactly the kind of balance I look for. Where it once leaned heavily on pure chocolate with just a touch of fruit, it now brings a balanced mix of red fruit and dark chocolate. It is still a classic Colombian profile, with the structure and balance that make it so versatile. Since 2023 Ana has started producing a natural coffee, which keeps that classic base, but adds boozy sweetness on top. A little less clean, but full of character and a great addition to the range. During a cupping in Cali, hosted by Juan Pablo Argote, I found one coffee that had many issues, but that I felt had potential to become something great. Ana Lucia Restrepo, who turned out to speak English quite well, recently returned to her parents’ coffee farm to continue their trade. She sees the need for investments and quality improvements, and is willing to put her shoulders to the wheel. Realizing this would be a very long-term project, with years of hard work to get this coffee to be recognized as a high-grade specialty coffee, I still felt inspired and energized to take action. The greying coffee production industry is a worldwide problem; this project may be the way to make things interesting again for new generations. Together with Ana, we have tasted different coffees that she produces. She has planted different varieties, each with its own character, but all easy to maintain and highly resistant to leaf rust. The climate gives us similarities in flavour, but the different varieties are therefore even more exciting to taste along each other. During our conversations and when Ana shared pictures of her farm, we both noticed there was quite a lot to improve on. Coffee was still dried on wooden roofs, the fermentation chamber was worn-down, picking wasn’t as consistent as we would like… These issues are not easy to solve and it takes a lot of time and money. Still, Ana and I share a vision of this coffee becoming better every year by tackling one problem at a time and staying true to our promises. While working with her coffee, we try to identify the most important or most urgent issues so that those can be taken care of first.