Producer: Leonidas Asdrubal Apolo
Farm: Nueva Vida
Region: Puyango, Loja
Altitude: 1,250 masl | 4,101 feet
Varietal: Sarchimor, Acauã
Process: Honey
Roast: Light
Notes: Macadamia Cookie, Cola, Grapefruit Candy

Along with his daughter, Mireya, and her husband Freddie, Asdrubal works his five-hectare farm near Puyango in Loja, the southwesternmost region in Ecuador. Fifteen years ago he had a different farm in a neighboring area that was destroyed by frost. Asdrubal has always loved coffee so when he had the opportunity in 2017 to buy this farm he didn’t hesitate. His father taught him about coffee production as a teen. He used to manually crush-mill and sell to the local market until Caravela arrived in the area.

Caravela first imported Asdrubal's coffee in 2022 and we subsequently bought the entire lot! This is truly a small-scale family operation. Aside from Asdrubal, Mireya, and Freddie, they employ 3-4 pickers during harvest. Asdrubal provides them a weekly wage in contrast to paying based on the weight of cherries picked.

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.

Following our discovery of Asdrubal's coffee via Caravela, we jumped at the chance to visit the farm in September 2023. This is the first harvest that we purchased directly from Asdrubal. We look forward to a fruitful relationship!