ECUADOR LA PAPAYA ANAEROBIC #1385

Curator's Notes

Today we’re showcasing an extremely limited coffee, including a free treat pairing that matches its vibrant tasting notes! Introducing Onyx Coffee Lab's Ecuador La Papaya Anaerobic, a stellar light-roast that brings candy-like gummy sweetness, crisp blood orange acidity, deep red wine complexity, and a melon finish. To complement La Papaya’s tasting notes, we’re including a pairing of crispy, crème blood orange slices. These blood oranges are hand-picked from California orchards, then simply sliced, dried, and dipped in a white chocolate cream.

Roaster's Notes

Hacienda La Papaya, one of the most prominent farms in South America, has officially put Ecuador’s specialty scene on the map. This unique coffee is processed anaerobically for 48 hours and dried on raised beds, resulting in a candy-like gummy sweetness, a slightly bitter blood orange acidity, deep red wine and finishes with melon. Typica is one of the original heirloom varieties of arabica coffee that’s scarcity is becoming evident due to low yields even though the cup quality is spectacular. We celebrate Juan Peña as a producer that chooses quality and craftsmanship over quantity of exports. Over the past few years, Juan Peña has become a prominent figure in the coffee industry. Season after season, he is up for awards as a notable coffee producer, and his coffee has been on the national and world stage in the hands of competitors. It would be easy to believe that Juan has been growing coffee for many decades, but Juan began growing coffee just eleven years ago. Juan’s farm, Hacienda a Papaya, chose to diversify their crop after a disastrous rose harvest, and choosing to experiment with coffee took them down the path to become a prominent producer of Ecuadorian coffee. His rise to prominence has been multifaceted, although it’s mostly due to his scientific approach to growing and processing his coffees. Each step of harvest is well documented and adjusted from season to season. This care is evident in the cup, this Anaerobic natural Typica exudes clear terroir of Ecuador coffee, as well as complex sweetness and floral notes from processing. We made contact with Juan Peña from a conversation online, during a transition time for the coffees of Hacienda La Papaya. The formation of CafExporto has brought a level of control that Juan sought out from the outset of his coffee career, and has provided us with direct access to his meticulously processed coffees. ANAEROBIC PROCESSING There are few leaps in the technique of processing coffee larger than the most recent trend of Anaerobic processing. This is oftentimes a technique of natural processing coffee, where whole cherries are fermented in a limited oxygen environment. The word Anaerobic is a catch-all term used more often than not to refer to a limited oxygen environment. Coffee cherries are subject to pre-fermentation before they are moved to a drying bed or patio. The extended fermentation often adds a winey or fruity note to the coffee. Throughout the world, we’ve seen this practiced in many ways, from adding cherries into a clean grainpro and tying the top for the night, all the way to stainless tanks with an airlock on the top to slowly let out carbon dioxide caused by the microbes at work. There are many who are working to understand and better control this process to gain clarity on what is really going on with limited oxygen fermentation. This particular lot was fermented in sealed tanks for 48 hours, with the temperature monitored with probes inside the tank in order to control the microbial activity levels. Here is what Juan Pena says about their experiments: “Working on the farm in fermentations with natural coffees of different varieties was a success. The fermentation process with natural coffees began when the cherries were left inside the polyethylene containers. Over time, environmental factors were recorded and then passed the fermented cherries to the drying rooms. In this place, factors such as humidity and temperature are contracted. In summary, the process consists to refine the sweetness, acidity, and body of these coffees, and also add distinguished sensory notes, such as fruits, caramel, chocolate, among others. Considering that the fermentation is so complex, we are looking to find many different and potential results.”