Until now, coffee had always been planted in tropical climates, but this has changed thanks to Castellvilar, a plantation in Sant Vicenç de Torelló. This is the first coffee plantation in the world to be cultivated in a continental climate, since normally this type of crop needs a tropical or subtropical climate.
In Spain, for example, coffee could only be grown in the Canary Islands, specifically in the municipality of Agaete. However, thanks to different factors such as climate change and the passion of Joan Giráldez and Eva Prat, the promoters of the Castellvilar project, it has been possible to plant far from the tropics.
At the moment, as it is a unique plantation in the world, it is not yet possible to know how it will taste, since the environmental factor is key to the development of the coffee bean . This is very good news for lovers of this beverage, since until now they will not have tasted anything like it.
It will be a specialty coffee unique in the world, although we will have to wait until 2025 to taste it, since it will not be commercialized until then.
How do you manage to plant coffee in Catalonia?
The question is, how has this milestone been achieved? Although the first plantations are bearing fruit now, the project started 8 years ago.
In 2016, Giráldez began to study all the possibilities for planting coffee in Catalonia, the composition of the soil, the historical temperatures, the rainfall in the area…. Finally, the ideal location was found in San Vicenç de Torelló. The plantation is located in an opaque valley and shade is key to simulate the conditions of a tropical climate.
In addition, unlike tropical and subtropical climates, where the plant usually takes about 3 months to germinate, the Castellvilar plants take between 8 months and a year. According to Joan Giráldez, these plantations would be equivalent to high-altitude plants, those at more than 1,500 meters, since their growth and fruit ripening time is longer.