ICON 27 – Typica Mejorado Lixiviado - Birthday Sale!!!

Another stunning coffee from Ecuador, Typica Mejorado is an exceptional variety with a fascinating story and is always interesting to taste. Olinka’s careful processing has really maxed out the fruitiness and we find notes of tropical fruits like mango and passionfruit with cacao nibs and floral aromas.

PRODUCER: Olinka Velez
CULTIVAR: Typica Mejorado
PREPARATION Washed, Anoxic Fermentation
LOCATION: Chorora, Sozoranga, Loja, Ecuador
ALTITUDE: 1,400 masl
BAG SIZE: 150g

Ecuador is a country better known for its cacao and flower production than coffee and is often overshadowed by its neighbours Colombia and Peru. However, they are producing some incredibly exotic and highly sought after coffees, due in part to the high altitudes and the range of traditional and improved varieties found here. The best quality coffees from here command really high prices due to the high labour costs involved, low yields and high cost of production.

Chorora is owned by Olinka Velez and is the sister farm of Yambamine. These farms are located next to each other on a steep hillside surrounded by primary cloud forest and crossed by the old ‘Inca Road’ that once connected Cuzco with Quito. The land has stunning views towards the valley of Macara and Peru on the horizon. Olinka describes their venture in coffee as a transformative way of life. Her and her sister started planting coffee around the year 2010 after some big life changes, since then they’ve been drawn from the city into the land, investing a lot of effort, time and emotion into producing coffee. This land, as Diana and Olinka would describe it, is mystical and charged with good energy.

The farm is divided into two main parcels. Chorora which means ‘water well’ in Kichwa and Yambamine, which means ‘land of gold ‘. In both parcels there are a total of 8 hectares of cultivated land which are currently planted with Typica Mejorado, Catuai, Sidra and some new varieties such as Wush Wush and Morita.

A research laboratory is currently being built in the farm to design new processes and experiment with cross breeding different varieties.

This nano-lot is comprised of Typica Mejorado, a variety not grown widely outside of Ecuador with an interesting lineage. Nestlé used to operate a coffee breeding research department in the Pichincha region of Ecuador. It was here that they developed hybrids using a selection of Ethiopian heirloom trees. After several generations they released a variety which became known as ‘Typica Mejorado’. Thanks to genetic testing by World Coffee Research, we now know that despite the name, it is actually a Bourbon variety cross-pollinated with an unknown Ethiopian landrace. This is a comparatively low yielding variety but it more than makes up for that in the quality of its cup profile.
The process has been named Lixiviado (leached in English), due to the mosto juices, or leached juices, from the coffee cherry used in the fermentation. The coffee undergoes anoxic (reduced oxygen) fermentation for 240 hours in tanks, before being washed and then laid on African beds for slow and controlled drying.