I am the mountain and the road, I am the carriel and the machete. I am the fog that covers the sky when the sun barely rises and the smoke that rises from your cup to delight you with its aroma of tradition. I am the song and the trova. I am the day laborer and the mattock. I am a history of more than 300 years, a culture of hundreds of muleteers, farmers, and Colombians. Raised in the countryside, with the strength of an oak tree and the serenity of the birds. I am the legend of thousands of coffee growers that day by day bring out the passion in each sip of the coffee that identifies this country of fighters. I come to tell you not only my story. This is the history of an entire country.
I will oversee narrating those stories that people do not know, the story of those coffee growers that in full moonlight and mounted on horseback carried a tradition from town to town. The story of those farmers with strength and heart that brought numerous families forward. I come to tell their secrets, their omens, their remedies. I come to let the world know a little more about what everyone drinks in the morning, so that they understand that the flavor of coffee is enjoyed from its roots.
I was born in a small town in the Southwest of Antioquia, Colombia, surrounded by that which today I have turned into a master’s degree. I grew up listening to my grandfather talk about horseshoe trails and now I am the one who walks them. I understood that a good coffee is not only about a good bean, but also about a good process. Over the years, I perfected what is now an art and I understood that this essence is not only of a town, but of the entire planet. That is why this letter is for all of you, so that together we can embark on this route to learn more about the past to enjoy good coffee in the future. To know that fragrance and aroma are not the same, that sugar does not always improve the flavors, that some things combine better with others and that there can be a thousand varieties, but that there is only one passion.
I am Don Ray, creator, inspiration, and main figure of this family of which all of you are now a part, and I welcome you to this path we are beginning to walk.