What Wows Us About This Coffee
The coffee has such a clean expression of melon and lychee and is quite forgiving to brew. The acidity is crisp and refreshing and balances the sweet fruitiness of this gem.
Farm, Lot and Process Details
Reserve lots at Hacienda La Papaya are built from a heightened tier of selection: two specialist pickers are dedicated to harvesting only the largest, most uniformly ripe cherries from the best-performing sections of the farm. After a low-pressure rinse and a light disinfection step to suppress wild microbes, the cherries are inoculated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Intense Coffee Yeast) in covered fermentation tanks where temperature, pH, and stirring are continuously monitored across 120 hours of anaerobic fermentation. A 10-second post-fermentation rinse halts further microbial activity, and the coffee is then dried for 16 days in solar rooms with sensor-controlled ventilation and shading, hand-turned 3–4 times per day. The harvest cupped at 90.0 internally at Cafexporto.
Producer and Region Details
Hacienda La Papaya, under the direction of Juan Peña, is widely regarded as the benchmark for modern Ecuadorian specialty coffee. Set in the Saraguro Formation of Loja, the farm sits between 1,800 and 2,200 meters above sea level on Andean clay loam soils irrigated by mineral-rich water filtered through volcanic stone. Twelve hours of equatorial sunlight, warm days, and cold mountain nights extend cherry maturation, concentrating sweetness while allowing complex acids to develop. Juan Peña has championed Typica Mejorado—a cross of classic Typica with Ethiopian landrace genetics—as the variety that, in his words, best expresses the country’s terroir. The farm operates as both field and laboratory, with three resident agronomists, real-time soil and drying-room sensors (Integrated Coffee Pulse), and a continuous quality-control program from cherry to export.
