Country: Ecuador
Region: Saraguro, Loja
Varietal: Typical Mejorado
Process: Anaerobic Natural
Altitude: 1,900 - 2,100 MASL
Cupping Notes: Pomegranate, Lemon, Vanilla
Recommended Roast:City to Full City+
Good For: Auto Drip, Pour Over, Espresso

Description: Hacienda La Papaya and its founder, Juan Peña, are very well-known among green coffee buyers and maybe even more well-known in the coffee competition scene where it has been used on the national competition stage many times. The farm itself is about 28 acres, sitting very high up in the mountains of the Saraguro region, where they are the pioneer of coffee cultivation. The farm was founded in 2009, and began planting variety specific plots in 2010 including Sidra, Geisha, and this Typica Mejorado. This variety is believed to be the result of experimental breeding in Pichincha, Ecuador and is known to have high florality, sweetness, and acidity with a delicate body and tropical notes. This farm was born out of a desire to produce only high quality plants and processes, managed and oversaw by a team of agronomists. Hacienda La Papaya exported their first harvest in 2014 to markets in the United States, and has seen incredible recognition beginning as early as 2015, often placing top three in international competitions.

The farms serves as a research center for neighboring producers, offering to develop fertilization and providing coffee seeds, lifting up the quality of the entire region. Fortunately, the weather in this region is ideal for specialty coffee, with natural water sources nearby, guaranteeing the farms needs throughout the year. In contrast to the farms in the north of Ecuador where the climate is humid-tropical, Hacienda La Papaya is in the Andean coastal region where the climate is dry-tropical. This difference is important to La Papaya, as the drier climate calls for irrigation, which they have solved through a drip irrigation system for all 35,000 trees. The southern regions have the opposite needs where farms in the popular producing region of Quito often require drainage systems to remove excess moisture in the soil.

La Papaya employs 7 permanent workers and during harvest they hire up to 40 additional workers. This is a formal employment where those who work on the farm have social security, and all come from the Saraguro region itself. Eighty percent of workers at the farm are women most of which are mothers and their high school aged kids are allowed to work on the farm during the months of school vacation.

After being harvested, selected, and cleaned, the cherries are go to polyethylene tanks to be fermented for 120 hours, during which time the cherries are maintained at optimal pH levels. The process is carried out without oxygen, in the shade, during where time temperatures are not allowed to exceed 24 degrees celsius. After fermentation the whole cherries are transferred to the drying rooms where they remain for about 30 days.