Ecuador

Chito

Clean and floral Typica

A clean and floral washed Typica, produced in the hills surrounding the town of Chito in Southern Ecuador

Clean floral aromas are followed by crisp citrus and a delicate tea-like finish

Producer
Chito Farmers
Coffee expression
A floral & balanced coffee

Regular price: $20.00
incl. vat/tax
Sale price: $20.00
incl. vat/tax
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The Chito Community

Last year, CafExporto expanded their operation to include coffees from talented producers across Ecuador, those who have great potential to produce high-end speciality lots, but haven’t had access to the market for them. During their travels in Ecuador, the CafExporto team were surprised by the incredible quality of lots they found being sold into the national market, losing transparency and denying the producer any chance of adding value to their work. The coffees they tasted in the Chito community were one such revelation. Clean and floral cups, with character formed by their healthy soils, careful processing, and mainly Typica varietal stock. The farmers of Chito also grow other varietals, mainly Catucai and Caturra, but CafExporto are assisting each producer with seedlings of Typica Mejorado, Sidra and Geisha, alongside agronomic advice.

This is a very rural part of the country; with a majority of the population stemming from native Ecuadoreans, one hears a mix of Spanish and native dialects here. The Chito sub-region lies in the far south of Ecuador, bordered by Peru in the East, and the Mayo River in the West. The town itself sits in the bottom of a valley, surrounded by fertile farming lands in the hills. The farms are very small, averaging less than a hectare, so individual lots would be too small to export alone. For this reason, CafExporto selected the highest quality lots and created a Community lot, consisting of the work of 55 producers across the Chito sub-region.

This year, CafExporto’s support to the Chito community in processing has led to increased quality and longevity compared to last year’s lot, with clean and floral aromatics followed by green tea and citrus in the cup.

CafExporto

We’re excited to continue our collaboration with Juan Peña, owner of Hacienda La Papaya and CafExporto. Since meeting in Aarhus in 2018, we have purchased many small experimental lots, continuing a conversation through high quality coffee. Over the past two years, Juan has expanded his work, exporting more Hacienda La Papaya coffee to Europe together with us, and starting the CafExporto project, working with farms across Ecuador. We are excited to expand our collaboration with Juan, and to share his excellent work with a wider audience. We were able to visit Juan and his team in November 2021, both at the Hacienda and at CafExporto’s base in the nearby city of Cuenca, towards the very end of harvest.

Technical Data

Producer
Chito Farmers
Region
Zamora Chinchipe
Altitude
1600 masl
Varietal
Typica
Process
Washed
Harvest
July 2022

Washed Process

The washed process involves completely removing both the cherry and the mucilage from the outside of the parchment with the use of friction, fermentation and water. After being harvested, the coffee cherry is then sliced open by either a metal or a sharp plastic blade.

The two seeds (also known as beans) are pushed out of the cherry, which leaves the seed with mucilage as their outermost layer. It is essential in the washed process that all mucilage is removed from the seed which leaves only the flavour that developed in the cell structure of the seed prior to processing.