Ecuador | Nicolás & Ana Crespo - Pillcocaja

Nicolas and Ana Crespo own the farm Pillcocaja, located in the Yunguilla Valley of Ecuador, at an altitude of 1,650–1,800 MASL. This is a separation of their Mejorado, harvested in October 2024. This is our final coffee from this harvest season in Ecuador, and it marks our first purchase from Pillcocaja. This coffee is very clean, with a delicate flavor profile of florals, citrus, and brown sugar sweetness. We find green tea and jasmine, as well as orange, lemon, lime, nougat, and sweet pepper.

Pillcocaja is an 11-hectare farm that began in 2008 by planting sugarcane. They shifted to focus on high-end specialty coffee in 2013. “Pillcocaja” comes from the mountain where the coffee is grown. The farm employs 20 families from the local area, with 95% of the workforce being women.

Cherries are collected at peak ripeness. Once sorted, they are depulped, and the seeds are fermented in open tanks for 18 hours. Following this stage, the seeds are washed thoroughly to remove the mucilage and then moved to drying tables, where they are dried on raised beds for 10–12 days in a shaded, cooler section of the drying house.