Growing Regions

Key Varieties

The Country That Wasn't on the Map

Until the 2010s, Ecuador was invisible in international specialty coffee conversations. The country's coffee was primarily commercial grade — Arabica from highland regions and Robusta from coastal lowlands — without the producer stories, variety diversity, or processing innovation that attract specialty buyers. Ecuador's specialty potential existed in its geography: equatorial position with consistent sunlight, altitudes reaching 2,000+ metres in the Andean highlands, diverse volcanic and mineral soils. The talent and infrastructure to express that potential were not yet present.

Juan Peña changed this. When he founded Hacienda La Papaya in 2010 in the Saraguro highlands of Loja Province, he brought an agricultural scientist's systematic approach to a coffee region without scientific precedent. He built a genetic seed bank, installed drip irrigation (essential in Saraguro's dry-tropical climate), constructed a full on-farm micro-mill, and opened his facilities to neighbouring farmers — building a cluster of quality producers around La Papaya's infrastructure. Three consecutive Sprudge "Notable Producer" awards followed. Then JBC Coffee Roasters, Onyx Coffee Lab, Black & White Coffee, Hydrangea, and Frothy Monkey began carrying La Papaya lots. Ecuador's specialty identity was established.

Why Saraguro, Loja: The Terroir Story

Saraguro is a municipality in Loja Province in southern Ecuador's Andes — an area with a dry-tropical Andean climate unlike any other South American coffee-growing zone. Where most Colombian, Peruvian, and Bolivian Andean coffee regions receive substantial natural rainfall, Saraguro experiences distinct wet and dry seasons, with the dry season requiring supplemental irrigation to maintain cherry development. Juan Peña's drip irrigation system — one of the first in Ecuadorian specialty coffee — was not a luxury but a necessity.

The altitude of 2,000 metres in Saraguro's equatorial position creates extraordinary slow maturation conditions: the high elevation provides cool temperatures that slow cherry development, while the equatorial sun provides consistent energy for photosynthesis throughout the year. The result is dense, flavour-concentrated beans with the aromatic complexity that only true altitude can provide. The mineral richness of Loja's diverse geological substrate — sedimentary and volcanic soils — adds further flavour complexity.

The Varieties: Why La Papaya's Portfolio Is Extraordinary

Hacienda La Papaya grows Typica, Typica Mejorado, Sidra, Gesha, and B7 — five of the most celebrated varieties in specialty coffee, all grown at 2,000 metres under drip irrigation with food-science precision in processing. This is not accidental diversity. Juan Peña selected these varieties specifically because they represent the highest quality ceiling available in arabica genetics and because Saraguro's terroir conditions suit their demanding growing requirements.

Sidra — the "mystery variety" that won the 2019 World Barista Championship (Jooyeon Jeon, South Korea) and the 2022 WBC (Anthony Douglas, Australia, using El Diviso Sidra) — is related to both Ethiopian landraces and Bourbon, its genetic identity still debated by researchers. At La Papaya, grown at 2,000 metres and processed through anaerobic natural protocols, JBC Coffee describes the result as delivering "mango, mulled wine, honey, coconut, and guava." Hydrangea Coffee's Typica Mejorado washed lot shows "orange, creamsicle, apricot, and honey." These profiles are not marketing language — they are the direct product of variety genetics expressing themselves in exceptional terroir with precise processing.

Segundo Cartuche and the Processing Team

Behind La Papaya's precision processing is Segundo Cartuche, who leads the wet processing and drying teams. Juan Peña sent Segundo to learn from some of the world's best producers — Colombia, Costa Rica — and brought that knowledge back to Saraguro. The processing protocols at La Papaya reflect this investment: fermentation tanks monitored with Brix measurements and temperature records, drying beds managed over 3–4 weeks for slow controlled moisture reduction, and lot separation meticulous enough to maintain the traceability that international specialty buyers require.

Ricardo Vargas: The Food Engineer of Pichincha

Ricardo Vargas represents a different strand of Ecuador's specialty emergence. A food engineer who transitioned to coffee farming in 2014, he founded Don Vallejito in Pichincha Province near Quito — named in memory of his late father-in-law whose vision of coffee as a rural development tool inspired the project. His food science training directly informs his processing approach: Brix measurements at critical fermentation intervals, temperature monitoring, and a 3–4 week slow drying protocol that builds aromatic complexity without the fermentation risk of rushed naturals. Sample Coffee (Australia) describes the result as "a big, fruit-forward cup, with notes of raspberry, pineapple, and lemon sherbet." That profile is the direct product of a food engineer's precision applied to coffee processing.

The Bimodal Harvest: Year-Round Freshness

Like Colombia, Ecuador benefits from a bimodal harvest cycle — two distinct harvest seasons per year rather than a single annual harvest. This means fresh Ecuadorian green coffee is available for import at more points in the year than single-harvest origins, giving producers the ability to experiment with different lot types across harvests and giving European buyers through BrewFusion access to fresh-crop Ecuadorian coffee across the full calendar year.

Key Producers & Exporters