Our co-owners, Jeff and Maritza Taylor, first traveled to Ecuador in 2008. We have roasted small, carefully separated micro-lots from Loja, Zamora Chinchipe, Imbabura and Pichincha. Our purchases have included coffees from Juan Peña at Hacienda La Papaya, Fausto Romo and Nancy at Finca La Carolina, and small farms producing the Peñaherrera coffees.

Coffee has been recorded in Ecuador since 1860, first around Jipijapa. It became more important after the cacao boom ended in the early twentieth century, and production grew through the 1950s and 1960s, largely on small family farms. Settlers expanded Robusta planting in the Amazon from the 1970s.

Pests, falling prices after the international export-quota system collapsed in 1989, and the 1997–98 El Niño contributed to a steep decline. Aging plantations, disease, low yields and scarce credit added to growers’ difficulties.

As production shrank, Ecuador’s instant-coffee industry came to depend heavily on imported beans. Specialty coffee, meanwhile, has flourished since the 2010s, especially in Loja and around Quito. Ecuador held its first national Cup of Excellence competition in 2021.