Zarza Coffee: Family Passion that Blossoms in Every Beans
Zarza Coffee is founded by the third generation，a traditional coffee grower family. It is located in Bruselas, Huila, the heart of coffee in Colombia. The name Zarza is inspired by family name ‘Gasca’, and the Gasca family is like blackberry bushes that grow and nourish each other, symbolising the strength and unity of the family. This great story begins with Lorenzo Gasca and Florencia Parra de Gasca, who established the first coffee farm of family in the centre of Bruselas. This land with its intoxicating coffee aroma became the soul of the Gasca family.
However, as time passed, only a few members of the family continued to grow coffee, and it wasn’t until after the fourth generation that the family re-emerged. Jhonatan Gasca and his younger brother Johan grew up on coffee plantations, imbued with the industrious spirit of their parents, Don Lorenzo Gasca Parra and Doña Marina Serna Castaño.
The brothers’ youthful dream was to make their mark on the football pitch in Cali Cali, but fate had a different path in mind. The reality led them to focus more on coffee in Bruselas, where they found their true passion and purpose. Jhonatan got training in ecological agricultural production from SENA and devoted himself to coffee growing, while his younger brother Johan took care of business marketing. Together they decided not to let the Gasca family’s coffee-growing heritage die with the wind.
Zarza coffee located at different altitudes from 1450 metres to 1800 metres, it consists by 4 different farms:
La María, Bella Vista, La Perla y Santa Ana. They planted with Geisha, Pacamara, Aji Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, Colombia, Castillo, Sidra Bourbon and Wush Wush varieties.
‘We have always been immensely proud of our family name and we hope that it will once again resonate in the hearts and minds of coffee lovers’, says Jhonatan firmly. This belief has led them to push the boundaries of tradition in the production of good coffee, abandoning the traditional agricultural model of focusing only on coffee growing and opening up a new business operation model with a complete industrial chain from production to processing to export.
Zarza Coffee is not only dedicated to the production and commercialisation of coffee, but also to sustainable practices such as beekeeping, recognising the importance of bees for coffee growing. Bees are a fundamental pollinating agent, as they contribute to improving the quality and yield of coffee beans, contributing to the hardness, density and size of the bean. As a personal project of the family, they have created new beehives in the coffee plantations of the farms, especially in the varietal crops. They have been able to demonstrate that in the crops where the beehives are, the beans are bigger, with better density, the flowering is more uniform allowing a better maturation, an increase in the production of beans and an improvement in the quality and flavour of the coffee.
In 2024, Zarza had a surprising success on the international stage:
●Jack Simpson won the 2nd place in 2024 WBC with Zarza’s Anaerobic Solarisation Pacamara
●Jack Simpson won the 1st place in 2024 Australian Barista champion with Zarza’s Anaerobic Solarisation Pacamara
Zarza Coffee is more than a coffee grower; it is a story of perseverance, tradition and vision towards the future. Through the union and effort of their family, they have created a legacy that transcends generations and borders. Today, their coffee not only reflects the flavor of Huila, but also the passion, sacrifice and dreams of a family that has converted their land into a living testimony of excellence.
