Inside La Venta Café in Dubuque, Iowa. All images courtesy of La Venta Specialty Coffee.
Family-owned and vertically integrated coffee company La Venta Specialty Coffee recently completed a farm-to-cup connection with the opening of La Venta Café in Dubuque, Iowa.
Guests to the cozy shop situated on Dubuque’s Cable Car Square are sipping brews made from beans grown on Finca Janeiro – El Diviso, a family farm in the village of La Venta de Cajibío in Cauca, Colombia.
From tables outside the cafe’s 140-year-old red brick building, customers can take in the charming sight of the historic Fenelon Place Elevator, a 19th-century cable car railway in the heart of Dubuque that carries guests up 296 feet, connecting two neighborhoods.
Inside the shop, wide wooden floorboards and tabletops add warmth to the sophisticated gray of walls and chairs that reflect the bar’s gray La San Marco espresso machine.
Locally baked pastries, quiches and fresh sandwiches augment the coffee program, while bossa nova and other chill genres set a relaxed vibe for socializing or coffee appreciation.
“Here, people can enjoy different types and preparations of high-quality coffee, and [we can] share information about origin, variety, tasting notes and other key characteristics of the product,” Daniel Luna, who owns the cafe and the roasting company with his wife, Natalie Cerón, told Daily Coffee News. “We believe quality should be reflected in every detail. The furniture is light and comfortable, and the lighting is well-suited for reading, working or having a conversation.”
In Colombia, Finca Janeiro – El Diviso has been in Luna’s family since it was founded in 1950 by his grandparents, Ary Jose Luna and Elisa Paredes. For years, the land was used largely recreationally until Luna’s father and his wife Julieta Guerrero took over increasing agriculture and livestock activities.
La Venta Specialty Coffee Founders Daniel Luna and Natalie Cerón.
Representing the third generation, Luna and Cerón planted the first coffee trees there in 2013. Five years later, samples shared at the 2018 SCA Expo in Seattle led to the farm’s first commercial green coffee customer in the United States.
“From that moment, we envisioned a farm with export potential and also tourism appeal, despite the challenges of a region like ours,” said Luna. “We then designed a coffee tour that included visits to the native forest, learning about coffee cultivation, the harvesting process, and post-harvest processing.”
In the following years, while hosting international tourists and continuing work on the farm, La Venta registered itself as a business in the U.S. handling exports and imports for more direct trade with U.S. roasters. At the end of 2019, La Venta expanded into roasting, with Cerón taking the lead as head roaster.
Today, profiles that typically land in the medium range are scaled up for production batches in a 38-pound-capacity Sivetz roaster owned by Dubuque-based Wayfarer Coffee, or a San Franciscan SF-25 roaster owned by Isabella Imports in Galena, Illinois.
“Both technologies deliver exceptional results,” said Luna. “Our roast profile is medium, and we adjust it based on the density, moisture, and characteristics of each bean, and what we aim to express in our products.”
While selling roasted coffees online and green coffees to more roasters in the U.S., the cafe has also started showcasing coffees from additional Colombian farms.
From the left: Julieta Guerrero, Natalie Cerón, Alejandro Luna, Ary Luna and Jorge Bolivar Sánchez.
“We now bring not only coffee from our farm but also from other producers in Cauca, Nariño and Huila for special preparations,” said Luna. “We understand the concerns, challenges and struggles of producers, and we are motivated by the opportunity to support farming families who dream of seeing their coffees in this market.”
La Venta Café is located at 452 W. Fourth St. in Dubuque, Iowa.
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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