SECOND GENERATION · AMAZON-FACING
PRODUCER · JUAN PEÑA · Espindola, Loja
Yacuri
Cafexporto's humid, Amazon-facing farm, planted from first-generation La Papaya seed inside the Podocarpus biosphere. Here humidity and biodiversity add depth.
Cafexporto's humid, Amazon-facing farm, planted from first-generation La Papaya seed inside the Podocarpus biosphere. Here humidity and biodiversity add depth.
Where the Andes meet the Amazon, warm humid air and 1,300 to 1,800 metres of altitude ripen the cherry slowly and evenly, building sugars alongside a broader, spice-driven complexity.
Clay-loam soils hold water for steady hydration, and the biodiversity of the Podocarpus reserve feeds a rich native yeast population that deepens fermentation. The cup turns tactile: layered, comforting, long.
The line is one day. Warm days build sugar; cold nights slow the plant so it keeps it. The wider this swing, the sweeter and denser the cup.
Yacuri sits on an Amazon-facing frontier held before the Inca by the Bracamoros of the Chinchipe basin and the Palta of the Loja highlands, both Amazonian in origin rather than Andean. Today the communities around the farm are largely mestizo, descended from Lojano settlers.
The valley belongs to the Mayo-Chinchipe-Maranon cultural landscape, occupied from roughly 5,500 BCE and now on Ecuador’s UNESCO tentative list. The high lagoons of Yacuri National Park are still visited by local healers, on ground crossed by the Inca road.
Every farm grows from first-generation Genetic Bank seed under Juan Peña. Milling and cupping happen later, at the Cuenca dry mill, not on the farm.
Every tree traces to a mother plant in the Genetic Bank.
Soil, plant health, and drying read in real time, lot by lot.
Grown, processed, and cupped under one standard.
Finished, sorted, and cupped at the dry mill, not on the farm.
Floral, Jasmine, Tropical fruit, Citric, Panela sweetness
Floral, Tropical fruit, Layered, Flowers and cocoa
Jasmine, Bergamot, Citrus, Black tea, Silky
Floral, Jasmine, Tropical fruit, Citric, Panela sweetness
Floral, Jasmine, Tropical fruit, Citric, Panela sweetness
Floral, Tropical fruit, Layered, Flowers and cocoa
