Past
Espíndola & Quilanga SHB Blend - PROCAFEQ Association
FAPECAFES
Arabica
Your coffee is fully insured during transport
Learn more
- 15 sales on Algrano
- 2 Avg. orders per roaster
- 14 Roaster relationships
- Origin
- Ecuador
- Producer
- PROCAFEQ
- Variety
- Caturra, Bourbon, Typica, Pacas, San Salvador, Castilla
- Process type
- Fully washed
- Altitude range
- 1200m - 2100m
- Harvest period
- May, 2021 - August, 2021
- Algrano's cupping score (SCA)
-
85.0
points
Updated September, 2021
- ID
- EC-3-202105
Pay in your preferred currency
You can choose between USD, CHF, EUR, or GBP.
Pay 10 days after placing the order
No financing costs
Buy now, pay later
Financing costs apply until the coffee is released.
The coffee story
PROCAFEQ (Asociación de Productores de Café Altura de Espíndola y Quilanga) is formed by 18 groups of producers in the cantons of Espíndola, Quilanga, Calvas, Gonzanama and Sozoranga, in the Southeast of the Loja province. The extense area is rich in plant especies, particularly flowers, and presents areas of natural Andean woodland and moorland. It is home to the Podocarpus - El Cóndor biosphere reserve, which borders Peru.
The woodlands in Loja sit on geological formations from the Miocene and Pliocene periods. The canton of Quilanga is famous for the Chiro peak, which can be seen from the local villages and houses caves and an ancient indigenous cemetery.
The coffee farms range from 1200 m to 2100 m above sea level and are based around an ancient volcanic system, crossed from North to South by the Real de los Andes mountain range. This is a semi-humid area. It rains all year round but mostly between October and May. The average yearly rainfall is 1300 mm and the average temperature is 18,7℃ (max 23℃, min 14,5℃).
The area is characterised as an Intertropical Convergence Zone, where sea-winds from the West meet the Alisio Eastern winds. The geography, a transition from the mountainous Ecuadorian Andes to the Sechura desert in Peru, is akin to the African Sahel. The soil is loam clay moderately dry with volcanic sediments and matter.
The main variety grown in PROCAFEQ’s region, and one of the reasons why it’s said that the area developed a good reputation for quality, is Typica (more than 35%). The area also produces Bourbon (20%), Caturra (15%) and Pacas, San Salvador and Castilla. The trees are planted under the shade of guava trees, porotillo, nanume, leucaena, chirimoya, and others.
Traditionally, the harvest happens from May to September, peaking in July. Most of the local coffee is still processed in the old ways without selective picking and followed by a drying period on bare soil. This coffee goes mainly to the internal market. Around 80% of the coffee is processed as fully washed with selective picking, floating, fermentation for removal of mucilage and drying on marquesinas.
Overall, the region’s coffee presents the following attributes:
- Fragrance: Chocolate and caramel, floral, honey, green apple, butter and citrus.
- Sweetness: Very sweet with caramel notes.
- Acidity: Lemon, mandarin, green apple and peach-like.
- Balance: Good balance.
- Body: Buttery, creamy and velvety.
- Aftertaste: Very sweet.
This coffee is being offered by FAPECAFES (Federación Regional de Asociaciones de Pequeños Cafetaleros Ecológicos del Sur), a nonprofit organization created in 2002 to gain market access for smallholders' coffee. FAPECAFES is a member-owned institution formed by 6 grassroots associations in the provinces of El Oro, Loja and Zamora-Chinchipe. There are around 1200 members, 95% of whom are small producers. The Federación is both Fairtrade and organic certified.
