Coffee Club Vol. 56 Neighbours in Coffee, The Sequel

For a producer, gaining access to the specialty coffee market can be extremely difficult. The current market structure makes it challenging for those who grow smaller quantities of high-quality coffee to engage with specialty roasters and importers. This can be for various reasons, such as access to the proper farming tools, fertilizers, or equipment to grow their coffee to a high-quality standard.  However, in many cases, these smallholder producers meet or exceed specialty quality requirements but just don't have enough harvest quantity or consistency to gain access. This month, we focus on two amazing microclimates and regions in Bolivia and Ecuador, respectively, where neighbouring smallholder producers collectively improve their access to the specialty market by grouping their lots together and sharing several resources.   

Ecuador El Sauce

El Sauce comes from Quilanga, Loja, in the South of Ecuador. In the South, producers grow coffee at high elevations, often between 1700-2100 MASL. The South is similar to how we know coffee production in Colombia, such as Huila or Narino, primarily small parcel community-based smallholder producers and family-run farms. Another staple of Ecuadorian coffee from the South is the production of heirloom varieties like Typica and Bourbon. These have less disease resistance and require higher elevation and lower temperatures to thrive. The community lot from El Sauce is from the Quilanga region in the South. It is an excellent example of a field blend with Typica and Bourbon from high elevations produced by smallholder farmers within the community.

It is a communal lot of coffees produced by Alonzo Jimenez, Abel Cueva and Mario Guerrero. The elevations in this region sit between 1,700 and 2,000 m.a.s.l, one of the highest in Quilanga. 

Like many regions of Ecuador, Quilanga suffered from severe leaf rust in 2012. Despite this adversity, the community's resilience shone through. Many producers lost a large part of their production. Still, due to the elevations in El Sauce, many of them could maintain a large part of their Typica plots, or Criollo, as they call the variety locally. 

This is The Coffee Quest's fourth year working with coffees out of Quilanga, to create a communal lot as an option for many of the high-quality neighbouring coffee producers in the microregion to gain access to the specialty coffee market. Their dedication to diving deeper into the region, growing this collective lot as a coffee and quality representative, and separating out smallholder micro-lots is commendable. 

The Sol de la Manana Collective

Producers of the Sol de la Manana collective show strength in their collaborative efforts; as neighbours, they will often help each other pick, share practices and tricks for growing and elevating their coffees, and honestly share a special bond as a tight-knit community. Recently, they've begun integrating experimental varieties, including Gesha, Java and SL-28. Since all cherries are processed at the Agricafé wet mill and dry milling occurs at the Buena Vista mill, producers have focused on growing and maintaining their farms. Many producers revitalize their farms annually by diligently cutting and pruning their plants frequently and upkeep soil management since they don't have to be responsible for processing their coffees themselves. 

Bolivia Copacabana Women's Blend

Copacabana is one of the Caranavi region's colonies, with 35 families belonging to the collective. For the majority of their members, coffee is their primary income. Copacabana tends to be more humid, making naturals risky, so washed coffees are far more common. More recently, Agricafé has been working with a pair of wine agronomists who have been helping share more experimental anaerobic processes amongst washed coffees at the wet mill. During the day, the families pick the ripe cherries, then meet at 5pm to control and select the best cherries to drive straight to Agricafé's Buena Vista Wet Mill in Caranavi. The cherries are strictly regulated at the mill, and payment is made to the producers. 

The Sol de la Mañana project continues to nourish female producer opportunities within the Copacabana, giving opportunities not only to new generations of producers with agriculture information to help encourage improving their crops year-over-year but also encouraging new career opportunities for women in other areas of specialty coffee for those who don't maintain the same passion for coffee-growing as their predecessors, such as career opportunities in exporting, marketing and agronomy.

This specific lot is a washed, anaerobic processed blend of cherries produced by three female producers from this collective: Carmelita Aduviri, Juana Gonzales, and Mercedes Condini. They are part of Agricafé's Sol de la mañana mentorship program.

Carmelita Aduviri

No one exemplifies the Sol de la Manana program's success better than Carmelita Aduviri. Carmelita has been a grower in the region for 50 years, all while raising eight children. She owns three hectares of land in Caranavi, and she does not want any more, as she has realized that her land will be sufficiently profitable if she concentrates on quality procedures and maximizes her yield.

The Coffees

Bolivia Copacabana Women's Blend

Bolivian coffees are known for their ‘classic’ clean cup profiles - delicate, bright and sweet. The Copacabana Women’s Blend is no exception. A blend of Caturra from three neighboring farms, the green coffee once harvested is depulped and stripped off its mucilage. The seeds are then fermented in an oxygen free environment. This anaerobic fermentation enhances the acids present in the coffee, leaving the coffee with more fruit forward notes. Dried to a moisture content of 10.2%, and with a softer bean density, we settled on a slower roasting approach, aiming to draw out the Maillard phase to achieve subtler cooked fruit notes with a medium end temperature. When tasting this coffee, our team picked out notes of canned apple juice, red apples, yellow pear and softer sugar browning notes of caramel and toffee.  

Ecuador El Sauce

El Sauce comprises a blend of Typica and Bourbon (70%) mixed with Pacas, San Salvador, and Catimor (30%). The regional harvest period is between May and August. The producers generally follow a similar fermentation and drying process: 24 hours de-pulped, followed by 10-12 days of drying, depending on the weather. Heirlooms like Typica and Bourbon along with hybrid varietals like Pacas and Catimor create for an interesting and unique flavour profile in the cup. This particular lot also underwent an experimental yeast inoculation during the fermenting stage, creating a coffee with a very exciting taste profile! When profiling this coffee, we decided on a quicker roast with a lower end temperature for a well balanced, well integrated acidic impression. The cup itself is very lively and vibrant, boasting tropical notes of grilled pineapple, dried mango and banana bread. Notes of golden sugar and toffee provide a sweet backdrop to the more delicate flavours of apricot and ripe nectarine and finish with a creamy body. 

Be sure to join us next month for Coffee Club Volume 67, a highlight on female Producer Celia from Honduras & Peru,

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📸 All Images from Copacabana Women's Group are acredited exclusively to Apex Coffee, full imagery rights. All Images from El Sauce are acredited exclusively to The Coffee Quest, full imagery rights.