Fourth generation coffee producer and agronomist engineer, Luis Alberto Balladarez’s processing techniques and experiments are some of the best in the industry, and he’s won multiple national awards in recognition of this. He’s clearly no stranger to producing exceptional coffees, and has distributed each year’s winnings among the workers of his farms, Fincas Un Regalo de Dios, and the farm where this coffee was grown, La Bendicion.

Finca La Bedición is located in the Dipilto-Jalapa mountain range in the northeast of the department of Nueva Segovia and sits at an elevation of approximately 1,300 meters. In total, the farm is 252 acres, with around 105 acres planted in coffee. Of those 105 acres in coffee, Luis grows the following varietals: Caturra, Red Catuai, Hybrids, Villa Sarchi, Pacamara, Maracaturra, H-3, Marselleza, SL-34 and Java.

The farm has a rich, biodiverse environment of fauna and flora, with an abundance of broad-leaved trees and conifer species. All of this together yields optimal coffee growing conditions.

Throughout Coffee Quest's collaboration with Luis Alberto, he has always shared that the issue of climate change is an important matter to him. Working in the agricultural sector he can see the effect of climate change on the maturation and fermentation of his plants. That is why he uses organic fertilizers and filters.

In addition to his award-winning coffees from his own farms, he helps connect farmers to importers and roasters by purchasing their crop locally and offering it to his clients. The fact that he owns and manages his own successful farms make him unique among other mill owners, and is one of the reasons so many other farmers like these trust him to process their coffees.