Episode 546: Ecuador Perla Chiquita AAA Washed Bourbon

In 1998, Fabian Lomas used to work in Quito for a company that bought and sold coffee. During his time working for this company, he was able to learn a lot about coffee as well as production and processing methods. Fast forward 10 years to 2008 and Fabian decided to take a big risk and rent a piece of land to produce his own coffee with the eventual goal of making enough money to buy his own land for himself.

From the very beginning, Fabian was familiar with speciality coffee and he wanted to start his farm off on the right foot, taking lots of care of the processes carried out on the farm to produce great tasting coffee. Currently, Fabian is trying to involve his two children, Willy and Lizeth in the operations of the farm. Every time someone visits, Fabian encourages his children to show the guests around as he wants them to take over the running of the business one day.

Willy graduated from high school in 2016 and since then, has been working with his father, learning more about coffee production, and taking care of the agricultural management of the coffee trees. For instance, Willy and Fabian are in charge of weed management, fertilization, and harvesting. Lizeth not only takes care of the drying and hand-sorting of coffee, but she also owns a garden centre.

Fabian’s family have passed through hard economic moments in their lives, which has led to lack of fertilization which in turn resulted in diseases affecting the harvest. However, now with the help of our exporting partners Caravela, they have been able to improve their economic situation, build a drying station, and their next plan is to finally buy the land to have their own farm.

In the cup this reminds me of Mirabelle plum and apricots up front, sweet and juicy, before it glides into chocolate and toffee on the finish. Give it a moment and the aftertaste changes again into biscuit.

• Country: Ecuador
• Parroquia: Pichincha
• Cantón: Nanagal
• Farm: Perla Chiquita
• Producer: Luis Fabián Lomas
• Altitude: 1,300 m.a.s.l.
• Total farm size: 5 Hectares
• Coffee producing area: 1.5 Hectares
• Varietal: Bourbon
• Processing method: Fully washed and fermented without water
• Fermentation time: 14 hours
• Drying method: Covered patios
• Drying time: 7-15 days

CUPPING NOTES Mirabelle plum, apricot, chocolate, toffee, biscuit.

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 7
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 7
Overall: (1–8): 6
Correction:(+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 87

Roasting Information
Medium dark - all the way through first, nice and steady between cracks, first pops of second on the drop.