Boutique Coffee Manor El Guado Road Gapata Farm introduction Cafe Merino Lugmapata

Merino Lugmapata Coffee Farm is one of the small family farms that has contributed to increasing the production of high-quality specialty coffee in the country. It is located in Palatanga, Chimborazo province, in the central Andes of Ecuador, just a few hours from the capital Quito. This picturesque area is home to Ecuador's highest mountain, Chimborazo, and is part of Sanjay National Park, with rolling hills divided by valleys and freshwater streams.

The Merino family has owned the farm for nearly a century and is located between 1800 and 2000 feet above sea level. The name of the farm is a combination of the local fruit "lugma" and the word "pata", and "pata" means foot. Enrique Merino currently leads the farm. His great-grandfather mainly used farms to produce cattle and milk, but over the years, members of the Merino family began to sell their land. However, Enrique's father saved his part of the land and guided his son to make full use of the precious legacy. Enrique Merino realized the real potential of the farm by observing some 40-year-old coffee trees naturally produce beans on fertile land and under the best weather conditions. He began to study coffee cultivation and better agricultural production methods, planting new trees in the process.

In 2012, the farm began mass production of coffee. Like most small farms in the country, the Merino family used traditional farming methods, including picking by hand, washing hands, and using natural products, which eventually led to cleaner coffee. Lugmapata Coffee Farm began to attract the attention of the coffee industry, which is a testament to the family's continuous improvement in picking and processing methods. Their coffee won the third place in the 2016 Golden Cup competition. Only a year later, it won the first prize and became the best coffee in Ecuador.

The family currently uses 9 hectares of land to grow coffee, but plans to expand to 14 hectares this year and 21 hectares in the near future. Currently, most of their specialty coffee (90%) is exported to the United States and South Korea, and 10% is sold in Ecuador to local coffee brands and a growing number of specialty coffee shops. In the United States, they distribute coffee to the East Coast, including New York and Miami, as well as Chicago and Seattle.

Characteristic Coffee cultivation in Merino Lugmapata Coffee Farm

It takes hard work and dedication to produce award-winning coffee. At Merino Lugmapata Coffee Farm, a typical working day starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 4 p.m. At the busiest time of the year, when the harvest season is between June and September, workers divide their work into different steps: controlling harvesting, watering and irrigation, washing, fermentation, drying and peeling coffee beans.

The farm uses fully ripe coffee beans, selects only the best coffee cherries, and removes the rest from the production process. Although each step is important and requires care and attention, the washing process is crucial. If done perfectly, it will not only make the coffee cleaner, but also help improve the taste of the coffee beans. Continuous testing of the optimal drying and fermentation time ensures that the farm's specialty coffee production meets Enrique Merino's high standards. Fermentation and drying time have a direct effect on the aroma, body and flavor depth of the final product.

The variety of coffee

Since Merino Lugmapata Coffee Farm mainly produces coffee for the Asian and American markets, the farm focuses on specific coffee varieties. At present, four varieties have been cultivated on Ecuadorian coffee farms.

Sarchimor is a high-yielding hybrid between Timo and Villa Sarchi. It is resistant to pests and rust, which makes it a convenient choice for many farms. Another hybrid variety, Sidra, is a high-quality variety that inherits the best characteristics of Tieka and Red bourbon varieties. It has both sweet and sour taste. Pache, originally found only in Guatemala, is a natural mutation in a variety of iron pickups. When it matures on a smaller area, farmers can plant more Pache on compact land, resulting in higher yields. Finally, Merino Lugmapata Coffee Farm also grows a popular typical Arabica coffee variety, the iron pickup. It originated in Ethiopia, spread to Yemen in the 15th and 16th centuries, and then spread to India, the Philippines and South America. The variety has strong disease resistance, low yield and good quality.

Flavor description

The taste is sweet, and the more complex flavor of coffee also begins to appear, with a little pleasant acidity, adding to the taste of coffee.