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for Wednesday shipment or Wednesday 12pm for Friday shipment
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*Roast days are Tuesday and Thursday. Order by Monday 12pm EST
for Wednesday shipment or Wednesday 12pm for Friday shipment
Specs
Producer Grace and Galo Morales
Farm Finca Cruz Loma
Region San Jose de Minas, Pichincha, Ecuador
Harvest Summer-Fall 2023
Varieties Caturra
Process Honey
Altitude 1,450 masl
Importer Quest
Producer Profile
Finca Cruz Loma is a family-run farm in San José de Minas, Pichincha. The farm totals 300 hectares, on which a variety of crops are grown. Of those 300 hectares, six hectares are dedicated to coffee. Siblings Grace and Galo manage the coffee plantings. Initially, six years ago, they planted 8 hectares of coffee. However, because of a lack of experience, and other issues, they lost most of the coffee, with only two hectares remaining. However, with those two remaining hectares, they discovered they had high-quality coffee on their hands as they were scoring high in competitions.
At that point, Grace, who is an agronomist by trade, was involved by her brother Galo, who had initially been managing the coffee on the farm. She currently oversees the coffee production and introduced a new nutrition plan, with a focus on uniform cherry maturation. This has led to making the job of pickers easier, and consequently better and more consistent quality on the cupping table. During the months of February and March, they have a tiny harvest with which they conduct experiments with de-pulping, fermentations, naturals, and honeys. At that point, each nano-lot is analyzed and cupped, with the best-performing lots scaled up during the main harvest.
This past season, they came in third at the Cup of Excellence!
Pichincha province, in northern Ecuador is home to Quito, the nation's capital Coffee production in Pichincha surrounds the capital, and benefits from high altitudes as well as volcanic soils on the slopes of Pichincha volcano.
A natural mutation of Bourbon, originally discovered in Brazil in the early 20th century; Caturra derives its name from the Guarani word for “small,” a reference to its diminutive stature that results from a single-gene mutation causing dwarfism. It was this small size- allowing for more trees to be planted closer together- that led to mass selections of Caturra being made by the Instituto Agronomico (IAC) of Sao Paulo State in Campinas in the 1930’s. Caturra then made its way to Guatemala during the 1940’s and then was widely adopted in the 1970’s by the rest of Central America, where it is now one of the most economically important varieties.
At high altitudes Caturra has strong quality and yield potential but unfortunately, is quite susceptible to disease.
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Upon arrival at the wet mill, coffee is floated to remove over and underripe cherries. The coffee is then left to ferment in cherry for 24-26 hours. Next, the coffee is de-pulped and left to dry on raised beds for 25-30 days. Lastly, the coffee is often finished in a mechanical dryer due to the extra mucilage and humid climate.
IMPORTER | The Coffee Quest |
FARMGATE PRICINGWhat's this?FOB: "Freight on board," usually the price paid to the coffee exporter for coffee ready to ship. This includes price paid to the producer as well as milling, warehousing and transportation costs plus any intermediaries' fees and export costs. Farmgate: the price paid by the exporter or other buyer to the producer or producer organization. | 3.80 USD per lb |
FOB Pricing | $4.60 USD per lb |
SUBTEXT PAID | $5.80 USD per lb |
LOT SIZE | Total lot size of 2000 kg. Subtext purchased 500 kg. |
RELATIONSHIP LENGTH | Quest has been working with the Morales family for three years and this is the third year we have purchased their coffee. |
QUALITY | Subtext cupping score of 86 |
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