EAS | Ecuador Loja Altos de Marfil
Balanced Profile | Light-medium roast
Tasting Notes: Floral, Red Apple, Milk Chocolate
IT ALL STARTS AT THE COFFEE FARM
This Ecuadorian coffee is sourced from 44 small-scale farmers who have a very long tradition in coffee production, and grow traditional varietals. The average age of these coffee producers is around 60 years old, and most of them are starting to introduce the business to their children in order to continue with the tradition.
Harvest time came early in 2021 for Loja, which led to a good flowering stage due to consistent rainfall and humidity. Because of this early start, harvesting was able to start in June. Yield was a bit lighter for farmers this season, partly from having to cut down on costs by fertilizing less.
These farmers also benefitted from Caravela's coffee farmer education program PECA. Its main role is to educate producers and their families season after season on best practices to increase productivity and improve quality, with the end goad of becoming more profitable. Every year, Carvela trains more than 2,000 coffee producers, with their team traveling almost 300,000 km doing more than 5,700 farm visits to educate quality-minded coffee growers and their families.
These travelling educators not only help farmers monitor each each stage of growing and harvest, but also concentrate on post-harvest education like fertilization and pruning throughout the southern regions of Ecuador. Thanks to the PECA team's involvement in post-harvest processing in Loja, we have continued to see an overall increase in cup quality in the Altos de Marfil coffees!
TRACEABILITY
COUNTRY
Ecuador
PRODUCER
44 small-scale farmers
REGION
Loja
VARIETAL
Typica, Caturra, Bourbon
PROCESSING
Washed
ALTITUDE
1300 - 1800 meters
DID YOU KNOW
About half a million people depend on coffee for their livelihood in Ecuador, which is about 1 out of every 8 farmers and their families.
PRICE TRANSPARENCY
$3.75
Price paid by Driftaway
$1.40
Fair Trade price per pound
$1.50
Coffee C-Market price per pound
$0.05
Driftaway's World Coffee Research contribution per pound
This coffee travelled 3,109 miles to the Driftaway Coffee roastery in Queens.
Love the coffee? You can share your compliments & tasting observations with the farmers.
WHY DID WE SELECT THIS COFFEE?
We’ve roasted the Altos de Marfil for three years now, and each year we anticipate the new harvest. This season did not disappoint: as always, it’s a sweet and dense coffee with floral aromas. The red apple sweetness of this lot balances perfectly with the milk chocolate base notes.
AVERAGE CUPPING SCORE
86
/100
86
SCAA Cupping Score
20 x 70 kg
Bags purchased
3 years
Length of producer relationship
100% (in 2022)
Transparent coffees purchased
HOW DID WE ROAST THIS COFFEE?
This coffee is being roasted by Ian T. from 30th January to 23rd February in Brooklyn. We use the Loring Kestrel roaster for this profile. We have strict guidelines for each of the coffee profiles, and this roast has to pass the development time ratio test as measured in real-time by the roasting software, Cropster. Once it does, it is approved for production.
QUALITY CONTROL
We perform Quality Control via a process of coffee tasting called cupping on all of our production roasts once a week from home as per our Covid-19 shelter in place guidelines. Each cupping is conducted by our roasting staff Kieran D. and Ian T. using standard equipment, and is logged by our Q-certified cupper Ian T. All coffees are evaluated on a scoring scale of 0 to 3.
- 3.0 = exceptional roast - exceeds expectations
- 2.5 = on par with profile - matches expectations
- 2.0 = good roast, but 1 or 2 elements could be improved - needs improvement
- 1.5 or lower = failed - do not ship
AT YOUR HOME
Brew this coffee with your favorite home brewer and enjoy the taste of incredible coffee! Here are a few tips on how to make the best coffee on each brewer.
View other posts about how to make better coffee at home on our blog Coffeecademy.
