Caripe Variety: Venezuela’s Unique Coffee Treasure

The name "Caripe" carries with it a rich legacy of history and culture, tracing a journey through the mountains of Venezuela and out to the sea. The etymology of the word begins in the highlands of eastern Venezuela with the Chaima people and extends to the Caribbean Sea, named for the seafaring Kalinagos, whose waters carried Caripe's coffee to distant lands.

Long before coffee fields blanketed the mountains of Caripe, the Chaima people, its original inhabitants, gave the region its name. In their language, "Caripe" is believed to mean "Land of the Hummingbirds," a fitting tribute to the region's abundant wildlife and thriving nature. For the Chaima, the mountains were sacred, providing food, shelter, and spiritual meaning. The hummingbird, small yet swift and resilient, became a symbol of the land's vitality. To them, "Caripe" embodied their deep relationship with the natural world.

Meanwhile, just north of the Chaima’s mountain realm, the Kalinagos—known to the Spanish as the Caribs—ruled the seas. These expert navigators dominated the islands of the Lesser Antilles and parts of the mainland coast, including areas not far from Caripe. The Kalinagos and their mainland Carib relatives moved with ease between land and sea, connecting the islands and coastal regions through a network of trade, migration, and warfare. It was the Kalinagos, with their seafaring prowess, who lent their name to the "Caribbean Sea," the vast waters that would later play a vital role in Caripe’s story.

By the time Spanish colonizers arrived in the 16th century, both the Chaima of Caripe and the Kalinagos had established deep-rooted relationships with their environments—one tied to the mountains and the other to the sea. As European settlers began to introduce crops like coffee to Venezuela in the 18th century, Caripe’s cool climate and fertile soil proved ideal for cultivating the Arabica variety. The region quickly developed into a thriving coffee-growing area, with farms spreading across the highlands. As the land’s purpose evolved, so did the meaning of "Caripe." It came to signify not just the land of the hummingbirds but also a place where coffee flourished—a region defined by its unique climate and agricultural potential.

However, what sets Caripe apart is not just its history or its environment—it is the uniqueness of its coffee. In 2023, the World Coffee Research recognized the Caripe variety as the only unique Venezuelan coffee variety, solidifying its place in global coffee heritage. This distinction is not just an acknowledgment of its quality but also of its deep historical and cultural roots. The farmers of Caripe, many of them descendants of the Chaima, have cultivated this variety with care, preserving both its genetic purity and its connection to the land. The recognition by World Coffee Research highlights Caripe’s importance in the international coffee landscape, making it a symbol of Venezuela’s rich yet often overlooked coffee heritage.

As coffee cultivation took hold in Caripe, the region’s name became synonymous with excellence. The local farmers, blending indigenous knowledge with modern techniques, turned their harvests into some of the finest coffee Venezuela had to offer. But Caripe’s coffee story would not remain confined to its mountain valleys. By the 19th century, the region’s coffee began making its way down ancient trade routes to the coast, where it would be shipped across the Caribbean Sea to foreign markets. In a symbolic way, the sea that bore the name of the Kalinagos—the Caribbean—now carried the fruits of the Chaima’s land to distant shores. Though the Kalinagos and the Chaima had never directly intersected, the mountains of Caripe and the sea of the Kalinagos became linked through the channels of trade, with the land and sea intertwining in the flow of goods, culture, and history.

By the mid-20th century, technological advancements shortened the journey from the mountains of Caripe to the ports along the coast. Yet even as modern transport replaced the mule caravans and treacherous mountain paths, the name "Caripe" remained tied to both the land and the sea. Each bag of coffee that crossed the Caribbean Sea carried with it a legacy of indigenous heritage: from the Chaima people’s reverence for the land to the Kalinagos’ mastery of the waters that connected the islands and the continent.

Today, "Caripe" is more than a geographic name—it represents a journey of connection. It tells the story of the hummingbirds that once symbolized the vitality of the land, the people who worked the soil to grow coffee, and the sea, named after the Kalinagos, which carried their harvests to distant markets. But above all, it represents a milestone in Venezuelan coffee history: the recognition of the Caripe variety by World Coffee Research as a unique national treasure. This acknowledgment weaves together the histories of land, people, and sea, ensuring that Caripe's legacy endures on the world stage.