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.
Juan Carlos Velez
Juan Carlos Velez is a long term friend of Juan Peña, with many parallels to their stories. Both farmed roses, both are engineers, and both inherited lands that have been in their families since colonial times. As Juan Carlos began to dedicate himself more to growing coffee, he was advised closely by his friend Juan Peña, and eventually invited into the CafExporto project.
Juan Carlos’ farm is located slightly closer to Cuenca than Hacienda La Papaya, and at slightly lower altitude, at around 1700 masl. This means excellent conditions for producing natural coffees, with sweet and well nourished cherries, and excellent drying conditions during harvest. With seeds provided by Juan Peña, Juan Carlos set out to produce some excellent Typica Mejorado lots, with his natural lots leading to a friendly rivalry between the pair.
This lot was harvested last summer, and is every inch a CafExporto coffee. This is a clean representation of the Typica varietal, with florals shining through more typical natural process notes of stone fruit and a creamy milk chocolate-like mouthfeel.
