Yacuri Washed Typica

CafExporto

We’re excited to continue our collaboration with Juan Peña, owner of Hacienda La Papaya and CafExporto. Since meeting in Aarhus in 2015, we have purchased many small experimental lots, continuing a conversation through high quality coffee. Over the past few years, Juan has expanded his work, exporting more Hacienda La Papaya coffee to Europe together with us, and starting the CafExporto project, taking over management of two new farms in other parts of Ecuador.

Yacuri Washed Typica

During their travels in Ecuador, the CafExporto team have been surprised by the incredible quality of lots they found being sold into the internal market, losing transparency and denying the producer any chance of adding value to their work. The coffees they tasted in the Zamora-Chinchipe region, where they also found the Chito community, were one such revelation.

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. We are in the far south of Ecuador; the Chinchipe river forms a stretch of the border between Ecuador and Peru. Many of the farms here are small, so when the opportunity came to manage a larger farm at Yacuri, Juan jumped at the opportunity. The lower altitude and higher humidity from the nearby Amazon leads to a different expression of Juan’s work.

Here, this leads to softer character in the signature Washed Typica than we see at Hacienda La Papaya. Stone fruit dominates as opposed to citrus, and the typical jasmine florals are softened into white tea.