Ecuador La Perla San Pablo Typica anaerobic washed 250g - whole beans

Sometimes you want it extra.gscheid: in this series we present truly special small lots, roasted in mini batches on our lab roaster. More hobby than business, really – but for a coffee like this we give everything.

On our trip to Panama we noticed something: the really good farmers all share the same goal – they want their coffee to taste as close as possible to the fresh, ripe coffee cherry. Exactly that taste came to mind when the "San Pablo" first landed on our cupping table. Of all our coffees, this is the one that tastes most like fresh coffee cherry – a flavour hardly anyone around here knows.

So what does that taste like? Surprising. Not like "coffee" at all, but juicy, sweet and delicate – more ripe red fruit than anything else. On top of that, the anaerobic fermentation adds a fine, winey note. In the cup that means: bright cherry, a winey, fruity acidity and a lovely fruity sweetness with a long finish. Clear and clean, wonderfully fruity.

The "San Pablo" grows at Pablo Ponce's farm at 2450m in Pichincha, in Ecuador's northern Andean highlands. And 2450m is a real statement: this high up, the coffee tree lives at the upper limit of where Arabica grows at all – a few degrees colder and things get properly dicey for the plant. The reward for the risk: cherries that ripen agonisingly slowly, packing in all the more sugar and density. Pablo, by the way, discovered his taste for really good coffee in Milan – today he grows it himself, in the cloud forest, where the cool nights breathe extra sweetness into the cherries. The "La Perla" lot is a pure Typica, anaerobically fermented and then washed – hence the clear, fruity-winey character.

Our tip: into the filter. Pour-over or filter machine – just let the fresh cherry take the stage.

.ORIGIN: Pichincha, Ecuador
.FARM: Finca San Pablo / lot "La Perla"
.PRODUCER: Pablo Ponce
.VARIETY: Typica
.ALTITUDE: 2450m
.PROCESSING: anaerobically fermented, washed (anaerobic washed)
.CUP PROFILE: ...cherry, red wine, fruity sweetness – juicy, clean, like fresh coffee cherry