Introduction to the growing environment of coffee flavor and taste in Santa Cruz Manor, Ecuador

The country is divided into three parts: the western coast, the central mountainous region and the eastern region.

Map of Ecuador

Map of Ecuador

West coast: including coastal plains and foothills, high in the east and low in the west, generally below 200 meters above sea level, with some hills and low mountains at an altitude of 600 to 700 meters. Belongs to the tropical rain forest climate, the southernmost end begins to transition to the savanna climate. The average annual precipitation decreases from more than 3000 mm to about 500mm from north to south.

Central mountain: after entering Ecuador from Colombia, the Andes is divided into the eastern and western Cordillera mountains, with a plateau high in the north and low in the south, averaging between 2500 and 3000 meters above sea level. The Andes run through the middle of the border. The ridges crisscross, dividing the plateau into more than ten intermountain basins. The most important are the Quito basin and the Cuenca basin in the south. There are many volcanoes and frequent earthquakes in the territory. The famous Kotopaxi volcano, 5897 meters above sea level, is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. Chimborazo Mountain in central Ecuador, 6262 meters above sea level, is the highest peak in Ecuador, Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. It is 6384.1 kilometers from the center of the earth to the top of the mountain. Mount Chimborazo, located in the West Cordillera in the Andes, has long been mistaken for the highest peak in the Andes. It is a dormant volcano with many craters and glaciers at the top of the mountain, about 4694 meters above, covered with snow all the year round.

Eastern region: part of the Amazon River basin. The foothills of the foothills with an altitude of 1200 to 250 meters above sea level are rapid. below 250 meters are alluvial plains. The river is open, the current is gentle, and there are many rivers.

Located in the Pacific Ocean, the Cologne Islands (Galapagos Islands) is more than 900km east from the continental coast and covers an area of 7800 square kilometers. it includes seven large islands and about 70 small islands, all composed of volcanic cones and lava.

When Thomas and the crew landed on the island, they were frantically looking for water and were so thirsty that they squeezed juice from the fat leaves of the cactus to drink. At last a source of water was found in a rocky gully. Thomas attributed it to the gift of God, because it was good Friday, and they had piously celebrated mass before they set out in search of water. But Thomas will never know that the island they landed on is the only island in the Galapagos archipelago that has plenty of fresh water, today's St. Cristobal Island (Saint Cristobal).

St. Cristobal is a larger island in the Galapagos archipelago. At 410m above sea level, there is a small lake called El.Junco, which forms streams along the rocks and volcanic rocks on the southern slope of the island. Mineral-rich fresh water moistens the land of St. Cristobal, keeping the soil moist and fertile. It provides the most rare conditions for the growth of coffee here.

In 1875, 340 years after Frey Thomas de Belanga discovered the island, an indigenous man named Corvus came to St. Cristobal, where he established the Hasunda Coffee Garden and planted about 100 hectares of Arabian bourbon coffee trees. Because the plantation is located between 140m ~ 275m above sea level and the climate is equivalent to that of inland 915m ~ 1830 m, the unique geographical conditions are very suitable for the growth of super hard coffee beans (SHB) with high acidity, so this high-quality coffee has settled down here.

As coffee is consumed by people all over the world, the world coffee industry is also moving towards mass production, while St. Cristobal, a small and unreliable coffee industry, is in trouble and is likely to be forced to give up without profit. It wasn't until the early 1990s that the Gonzalez family bought Hasunda Coffee Park. The localized microclimate caused by the Humboldt current (HumboldtCurrent), strong equatorial sunlight and sharp temperature changes (43 ℃ at sea level and 10 ℃ to 16 ℃ above sea level) provided advantageous conditions that prompted the Gonzalez family to expand their coffee plantation. By reclaiming the early land, the Gonzalez family doubled the area of the coffee plantation.