Eladio Chamba and his family cultivate three hectares of coffee on their farm––Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe––in southern Ecuador. The farm is planted with excellent varieties and sits at high elevation in an arid climate, which contributes to slow cherry maturation. After transitioning from pig farming to coffee, Eladio and his family made a big change in 2015 when they purchased a small depulper and started producing specialty, washed coffees. We first bought their coffee in 2016 after an introduction through coffee exporter Caravela Coffee. Its seasonal return to our menu is highly anticipated by both customers and staff––not just for its exceptional quality, but for the unique connection it offers to a single family’s farm.   

Ecuador’s specialty coffee market is small, competitive, and progressive. News about processing techniques that fetch high prices travels fast. On a trip in 2022, nearly every farm we visited carried out some kind of processing experiment on their coffee to differentiate themselves in this competitive landscape. Always eager to innovate, Eladio has continued experimenting with anaerobically fermenting coffee. This year, after the coffee was pulped it was sealed in a large, plastic drum outfitted with an airlock. After 30 hours of oxygen-free fermentation, the coffee is washed with clean water and dried on raised beds. The resulting coffee offers a complex spectrum of stonefruit flavors and honeysuckle-like florals.