We’re grateful for the opportunity to share this small lot, processed exclusively for us, with your preferences in mind.

Floral & Wild

240 hour Anaerobic Typica

We were also able to taste the results on the cupping table in Cuenca; tables of top-quality micro-lots, with wildly varying flavour profiles and expressions. Juan mainly grows Typica ‘Mejorado’, the enhanced version of the varietal, first grown on Nestle’s experimental farms in the north of Ecuador. Juan puts much of his success down to the combination of high yield and incredible cup quality that these Mejorado plants provide. The Hacienda is also home to plots of Mejorado’s Nestle sibling Sidra, and a very limited amount of Geisha, while a small plot of Pacamara near the top of the farm is awaiting its first big harvest. This lot is from Juan’s Typica Mejorado trees, fermented in plastic tanks without oxygen for 10 days, or 240 hours. These plastic tanks are kept very clean, but fermentation juices are added from previous anaerobic batches, in a similar concept to a sourdough starter, in order to kickstart the fermentation with an existing culture of bacteria and yeast, pushing in the desired direction and leading to greater consistency.

This 240 hour fermentation lot has an incredible depth and complexity, to a level we haven’t experienced often in our years of tasting coffee around the world, especially when combined with such a clean expression, and maintaining so much of the floral varietal character we so value in Juan’s coffees. A testament to Juan’s uncompromising approach, and to the relationship we have built over the years, he grinned knowingly at our reaction to this coffee on the cupping table in Cuenca; ‘I knew you would like this one, I processed it just for La Cabra.’ We’re more than proud of our relationship with a true trailblazer like Juan, and are grateful for the opportunity to share this small lot, processed exclusively for us, with your preferences in mind.

ecuador

Hacienda La Papaya

Hacienda La Papaya is located just outside the town of Saraguro, in the Loja region of Southern Ecuador. The Hacienda has been in Juan’s family since the end of colonial rule, and is a place that holds great importance for the whole family, having spent their summers there since they were children. Juan began to experiment with coffee here in 2010, and moved to work in coffee full time in 2014 after his rose crop was wiped out by a terrible storm in Cuenca. Over the intervening years he has thrown himself into the pursuit of high quality coffee, with a meticulous and scientific approach. This approach, shaped by Juan’s experience in roses and his training as an agricultural engineer, has led to an astronomic rise to very high quality and international recognition, over just 7 years. His obsessive experimentation and need for scientific evidence is a cornerstone of his work at each stage, from carefully applied and monitored fertilisation, constant measurement of brix and cherry weight during harvest, innovation in careful fermentation, to the exacting drying process. Juan’s work in each of these fields is truly some of the most meticulous and effective we have seen in our years of travelling for coffee, and we left the Hacienda in awe.