Introducing our newest Direct Trade partner

Meet Leonidas Asdrubal Apolo Granda! Along with his daughter, Mireya, and her husband Freddie, Asdrubal works a five-hectare farm, Nueva Vida, near Puyango in Loja, southwestern Ecuador. Fifteen years ago he had a different farm nearby that was destroyed by frost. Asdrubal has always loved coffee, having learned about coffee production from his father as a teen, so when he had the opportunity in 2017 to buy this farm he didn’t hesitate.

Nueva Vida is truly a small-scale family operation. Aside from Asdrubal, Mireya, and Freddie, they employ 3-4 pickers during harvest. Asdrubal provides them with a weekly wage rather than paying based on the weight of cherries picked.

Caravela, a trusted importer that specializes in Ecuadorian coffee, first imported Asdrubal's coffee in 2022, and we ended up purchasing the entire lot! Then our green coffee buying team jumped at the chance to visit Asdrubal in September 2023 and initiate a direct relationship.

Above: green coffee buyer Jacob White with Asdrubal and his son-in-law, Freddie.

For the 2023 harvest, Asdrubal produced about 400kg of parchment. This ultimately converted to around five 69kg bags of green coffee. All his coffee cherry is honey processed on raised and covered beds. The cherry is floated and then fermented in covered tanks for 70 hours. It is then depulped without water and taken straight to the raised beds where it is rotated during a two-week drying period.

The current lot is predominantly Sarchimor and Acauã. It's sweet and complex in the cup, with a smooth body. We look forward to a fruitful relationship with Asdrubal in the coming years!