About Santos Faustino Garcia Flores

Nogal and La Playa farm is located in the district of Carmen de la Frontera, within the province of Huancabamba in the Piura region, on the border between Namballe in Cajamarca and Ecuador.

This district is characterized by having extremely varied altitudes, climates, and terrain. In the highest part of the Andes in this region (approximately 3,000 masl) we find moors and cloud forests. Up here, the climate is so cold only potatoes and other tubers grow.

All this changes if we travel 2 hours north, right up to the Ecuador border. This area is known as Selva Alta (high jungle). Here, the climate becomes more tropical, the vegetation thickens, and agricultural products diversify.
It is in this area where we find coffee and sugar cane crops and production of panela and yonque (popular alcoholic beverage in the area).

Santos is one of our top producer partners in this area. Born in the coffee producing area of Chaupe Alto. He’s been cultivating coffee since he was 15 years old. His farm encompasses 2 hectares, all dedicated to coffee and subsistence crops like bananas and yucca for his family’s daily usage.

He intersperses Caturra, Bourbon, Catimor and Pache varieties among shade trees including Albizia and Pacay. After processing, he loads parchment onto mules. Santos is a passionate coffee producer. He didn’t finish high school but that didn’t stop him from developing his farm and increasing quality year after year. He wishes to obtain national and international recognition in the future.

The name of his farm “Nogal and La Playa” comes from the great amount of the Walnuts tree in the area and “La Playa” (which means beach) is because part of his farm is adjacent to the riverside beach.

In this area coffee production coexists in total balance with the preservation of the ecosystem. The natural result is a sustainable and excellent quality coffee.