Ecuador - Los Romerillo

A clean and expressive cup with gentle orange acidity, a silky body, and a long toffee finish. Sings as a pour over, with a crisp juiciness that typifies a good washed coffee. As espresso, balanced with a fudge sweetness, that translates as malty biscuit once turned into a flat white.

This lot was purchased not only for its excellent flavour, but as the first step in building new long-term relationships that extend value beyond price alone — directing our buying power toward regenerative farming, equitable distribution, and measurable progress aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals 8, 12, 13 and 15.

+ Broader Context 

This coffee is the first of our lots selected specifically to help build relationships that create impact beyond quality metrics and market price — relationships that invest in resilience, environmental regeneration, and more equitable value distribution across our supply chain.

 

In response to our brief, our partners at Caravela connected us with a producing group in rural Ecuador seeking support for reforestation across their farms. Together, we agreed on a structure where part of the price paid contributes directly to the purchase and planting of 119 shade trees, including 35 fruit trees that will create food security or revenue benefits. 

 

These trees will strengthen farm ecosystems, improve soil health, sequester additional carbon, and enhance cup quality and coffee plant resilience in the years ahead. We have also committed to purchase the same quantity or more from the same producers next year, building confidence and resilience to support their investments.

 

For us, this is what responsible sourcing looks like: quality in the cup paired with tangible, improvements to the sustainability of a producers work and environment, through shared investment.

 

This coffee is produced by four members of the Los Romerillos community: Vilma Alexandra Ramón Urrego, Rosa Milta Elizalde Sanchez, Carmen Sanchez, and Lucio Elizalde. While Los Romerillos includes other growers, this particular lot reflects the work and dedication of these four family-run farms.

 

Each producer brings both tradition and innovation to the lot. Vilma continues to expand her farm while refining fermentation techniques, always focused on building a more secure future for her family through quality coffee. Rosa and her husband Nelson cultivate coffee at Finca Arenal, surrounded by fruit trees, springs, and fertile soils, where anaerobic fermentation and careful drying have become central to their specialty approach.

 

For Carmen and her daughter Lidia, coffee is also an act of continuity — maintaining the practices of their late husband and father, Cristo Rey, through organic farming methods and deeply rooted traditions.

 

Lucio, with more than 25 years of experience, has transformed his farm into a thriving agroforestry system, integrating fruit trees and sustainable cultivation to strengthen both biodiversity and cup character.

 

Across these four contributions, the lot expresses not only careful farming and processing but also a collective commitment to resilience, craft, and community. This coffee is a reflection of what becomes possible when smallholder producers work together, with the support of exporters like Caravela enabling the sharing of knowledge and investment in quality, while keeping family farming at the heart of the work.

 

+ Roast & Brewing Information 

This coffee has a light roast, designed to maximise its sweetness and balance without losing the gentle florality and acidity of the varieties and process. As filter gentle citrus acidity and apricot and nectarine roll into a brown sugar finish. This will work well across many methods, but is a great coffee for immersion brews like the French Press.

 

As espresso this can tend to be tart shots if run fast, or heavy toffee notes if too slow, so we've found a longer ratio (1;2.5) can help give consistent balanced results

18.5g:45g, 27 seconds