It is hard to talk about Paya Coffee without explaining what inspired this beautiful project, what made this small group of people to come together driven by passion and dreaming about creating something special linked to what we feel is running in our blood; Coffee.
Many things have inspired us along the way, but there is one source of inspiration that stands out, an extraordinary man; our grandfather Domingo de Tovar. The de Tovar family has a great tradition of coffee and cocoa farming and trading, which dates back to the XVII century when the first members of this family moved from Spain to this new paradise in the Americas now known as Venezuela.
After many years of hard work and sacrifice, the "de Tovar" family had built an outstanding network of agricultural and livestock farms, in a landscape that was once described by the famous explorer/geographer/naturalist "Alexander von Humboldt" during one of his visits to the "Americas" as the "Jardines de Venezuela" (Venezuela's Gardens).
Domingo de Tovar, USA.
This awakening passion and inspiration drove us to attend to this call that has been present in our family for generations, after all, it would be now fair to say that coffee is running in our blood!, so in 2019, Vidal Brothers Company was founded, this time starting a new chapter in beautiful Costa Rica, honoring that tradition of excellence, family, and passion for great coffee, and giving birth to Paya Coffee.
Paya estate, Venezuela.
But when the time came to defend and live by their ideals of freedom and progress, the De Tovar family did not hesitate to sacrifice all they had built through generations of hard work, all for a good cause; the abolition of slavery and the Venezuelan war of independence.
Fast-forwarding several years, Domingo de Tovar, with only 38 years old, was presiding the "Fondo Nacional de Cafe and Cacao" (National Coffe and Cocoa Fund) which was based in his prominent coffee-growing estate named "Paya". Once again, when the duty called, he left aside his passion and family business (growing coffee) to represent Venezuela in the United Nations, looking to defend fair trading conditions for coffee farmers as part of the International Coffee Agreement in New York 1962. Despite suffering some health problems during his time at the UN, he decided, against the advice of his colleges, to stay and wait until he was back to Venezuela to address his health, dying from a heart attack soon after his return.
