One of the aims of Brew Crew is discovering new coffees from different origins around the world, and with this delivery you’re enjoying the first coffee from Ecuador that we’ve shared.

Ecuador produces a mix of mostly arabica and some robusta, which is a more bitter species which is typically used in commodity blends and instant coffee. Ecuador’s total production in 2015 was around a million 60kg bags (the standard for measuring production), which is a smaller crop than Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

In fact, even if you combine those four countries, they’re still dwarfed by Ethiopia’s annual crop of 6 million bags, or Colombia’s 11.6 million.

This particular coffee comes from a farm called La Barbanera run by Oscar Proaño and his wife Flores Azucena, and it’s a farm that has been in the Azucena family for over 40 years.

Flores has a passion for quality and tends to the coffee plants, developing ways to improve their harvest. Oscar is a retired police officer who helps his wife manage the farm.

Caravela, our partners in Ecuador, worked with them to share the best methods for fertilisating the crop and benefits of slow drying the coffee. Since applying these new processes, Flores and Oscar have seen a great improvement in their crop’s quality, which is reflected by the higher value of their crop.

While coffee from the farm is the result of Flores’s work and has been in her family for 40 years, it is her husband’s name that is used in the documentation for this coffee. To help maintain the traceability of this coffee from farm to you, we’re following the same naming pattern.

All the images and information about this coffee and its producers have been kindly shared by the importer, Caravela, and edited by us, Sample Coffee (unless linked to or credited otherwise).

Resting beans inside the sealed bag helps develop peak flavours and acidity

Learn how long and why you should wait in our brewing window recommendations.

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Our recipes are easy to follow and designed to bring the best out of our coffee. Find your favourite method on our brew guides collection or test a new one—and if you have any questions, ask us anytime at [email protected].