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Adjuntas.- Jonathan Pérez Marín purchased a nearly 50-acre farm in the Garzas neighborhood of Adjuntas with the purpose of turning its operation into a hobby and, incidentally, housing his animals and sharing with family and friends.

But the place didn’t have any crops, so he began to grow a variety of products. In no time, he realized he had already planted over 30,000 coffee trees and around 15,000 banana plants. Suddenly, this 33-year-old businessman from Adjuntas was faced with a monumental agricultural project that he called Hacienda Jácana. He currently receives dozens of visitors who want to learn about the coffee industry and enjoy the natural landscape.

Without intending to, Jonathan had been preparing since his youth to take over the reins of his new company, where he is dedicated to developing his own brand of coffee: Latitud 18, inspired by Puerto Rico’s geographical coordinates and, in addition, corresponds to other areas that grow the best coffee on the planet.

With a degree in accounting and finance from the University of Puerto Rico in Ponce, Pérez Marín began his professional career as head of the Property Office in the public university system and then, as a merchant, in the foodservice business. He became a barista instructor and, eventually, a business consultant.

“We trained baristas, bartenders, waiters and in that process, when everything was well enough, we decided to buy the farm in 2014.”

“We really bought this to have a place to be, a place to share with friends, a place to raise our animals, our horses and we always had current issues on our minds, mainly food sustainability and water scarcity,” recalled Pérez Marín. “I wanted to grow some fruit and vegetables myself. That’s why I bought this place, I wanted to dedicate myself to this hobby of mine. In the blink of an eye, we already had 30,000 coffee trees planted, 15,000 plantain plants, we rescued the old citrus crop the farm had and we already had become a full-fledged agricultural project,” he revealed.

However, Hurricane María destroyed all the crops that were planted three years earlier. This didn’t stop the Adjuntas native, so he pressed forward. This farm is where the project was born; it attracts many local and foreign tourists, “because the only viable way to keep the farm on its feet was for it to produce enough income to support itself”.

“That’s when we created our coffee brand, which is Latitud 18. We named Latitud 18 after María passed; Puerto Rico is located in the 18th latitude. It’s where the coffee grows, where Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and other places in the world where the best coffee is grown,” he explained. “Aside from our coffee brand, we created over eight other coffee brands, which we process and pack here so that more people can work on their projects.

Among them are Despierta Boricua by chef Ventura Vivoni, Café Mancha’o, and others,” he said.

The operation, according to Pérez Marín, generates around 20 jobs. Their production serves as raw materials for the development of other products by entrepreneurs that already have their own brands.

The coffee is 100% arabica, of the limaní variety. The farm also grows plantains, oranges, and lemons, “which are crops that are important for the farm, its maintenance, and smaller crops such as yautía, yams, cassava, corn, and others”. “We also grow pineapples, papayas, bananas, strawberries, and we raise laying hens. In addition, we’re raising over 3,000 tilapia in captivity; it’s a fish fit for human consumption and it’s a matter of food sustainability,” he explained.

According to Jonathan, “this area where we are, which includes El Ataúd, Jácana, and La Loseta pools, was called the Jácana sector of the Garzas barrio”. Likewise, “jácana” is a native tree that produces a fruit called the jácana fruit. That tree regularly grows on riverbanks. The martinete, which is a bird that walks on the water in rivers, is also called jácana.”

The farm became an agritourism destination during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it received a passport from the Puerto Rico Tourism Company that officially certified it as an agritourism destination in 2022.

“We receive tourists every weekend and we take them on a tour that takes about two hours. People arrive and we offer them an interactive experience. We talk about coffee, food sustainability, agricultural entrepreneurship, we talk about coffee in the world, and we do coffee tastings,” he explained. “We take them to our coffee plantations, we talk about our tilapia nursery, and they interact with all our animals; horses, donkeys, mules, they can feed the fish and, finally, we take them to our ecological coffee washing station, which is the most efficient one installed right now in Puerto Rico. It operates with few people, consumes very little water, and its environmental impact is low,” he added.

For details: Latitude 18 Coffee on social media or 787-216-3454.