Before 2010, coffee production had been sparse in Saraguro, a canton (county) of the Loja province in southern Ecuador. Despite favorable altitude and growing conditions for coffee, farmers here have traditionally grown corn and other subsistence crops. Years of low and volatile prices created the perception of coffee as a subpar investment. The recent success of a few high-end producers has led many in the area to try growing specialty coffee. Abel Salinas is one of those producers, originally planting coffee on his farm around 2015. Abel hoped that by paying careful attention to the best practices of cultivation and processing, he would be able to harness the raw potential for coffee quality all around him.
Abel succeeded. After his first full harvest in 2019, Abel placed first in the Best of Loja cupping competition. One of our coffee buyers served as a juror at the competition and purchased a small quantity of this phenomenal coffee at the subsequent auction. Counter Culture entered the 2020 buying season with hopes to buy Abel's entire harvest, and when that year’s crop yielded slightly more coffee than expected, we didn’t hesitate to increase our purchase volume. In 2021, we were pleasantly surprised when Abel made headlines by winning Ecuador’s first Cup of Excellence competition! In the years following his historic win, we’ve faced stiff competition to buy Abel’s coffee, but Abel kindly offers some of his best lots to Counter Culture.
This year, Abel ran an experiment to better understand fermentation’s impact on his post-harvest processing. During a visit to Abel’s farm in July 2022, we collected samples of coffees fermented in-cherry for 24, 48, & 72 hours before washing & drying. We cupped and scored these coffees alongside a more traditional washed control sample. The longer the coffees fermented in-cherry, the more fruit flavors they took on, compared to the control sample. We found the 48-hour lot to showcase this enhanced fruit quality while maintaining cup cleanliness.
This 48-hour in-cherry fermentation was the process used for Abel’s 2021 COE winning lot, and the one we ultimately purchased this year.
