History
My name is Jorge Mauricio Aristizábal Duque, I am from Pensilvania Caldas, Colombia. I am a professional in International Economic Relations and an Information Systems Technologist.
We are a coffee-growing family from Pensilvania, Caldas, from Vereda La Esperanza, Finca La Lusitania. My father, Adalberto Aristizábal Navarro, was displaced by violence, has owned his farm for 50 years, and we have been growing coffee ever since.
When we were children, we played among the coffee plants and on mountains of collected dry coffee. We grew up with a dream. Now I am a professional, and I have decided to take the name of my family and our region to new frontiers.
Coffee arrived in Pennsylvania through a Jesuit expedition to the regions of Santander and Tolima, and would later spread to Viejo Caldas in the 17th century.
In 1860, Isidro Mejía and Manuel Antonio Jaramillo, two merchants who traveled with their goods from Sonsón (Antioquia) to Tolima, Cundinamarca, and Salamina, crossing the central mountain range, passed through this land and decided to settle in the territory. They built a hamlet and brought 8 families from Marinilla, La Unión, Santa Fé (Antioquia), and their surroundings.
Manuel Antonio Jaramillo, upon seeing the "Vallecito" (little valley), suggested the name "Pensilvania la Explanada" because he envisioned similarities in climate and topography to Pennsylvania, USA.
On February 3, 1866, a commission led by Isidro Mejía requested the governor of Medellín to establish it as a corregimiento of Sonsón, to be named "Pensilvania." On January 1, 1872, after several years of local and administrative preparations, it was elevated to a Municipality, which today is part of the Department of Caldas.
Pensilvania (also known as “The Pearl of the East” due to the quality of its people) has been recognized worldwide for producing one of the best coffees in the world. From 1900 to 1930, sacks of coffee were exported directly to the USA under the brand "Café excelso Pensilvania."
We grow Bourbon and Castillo Naranjal coffee, and have planted a lot of the highest quality Geisha coffee, which we are currently awaiting its first production.
