Ecuador Loja Bolson Arabica

A balanced arabica from Loja province in southern Ecuador. Loja is one of the country's most respected highland regions, and its coffee is floral and chocolatey, with citrus and caramel.

Origin & Story

Ecuadorian coffee began on the coast. Spanish colonists introduced the crop in 1860 in Manabí, at low altitudes of roughly 500 to 700 meters, and it took off in the 1920s when cacao, the country's leading export, came under threat. Ecuador rode the coffee boom, exporting as many as two million sacks a year, much of it through the port of Manta to Europe.

Manabí is still the largest area for arabica, producing about half of the country's crop, though its coffees grow at lower altitudes and tend to be heavier-bodied, with chocolate and nutty notes. Better-quality arabica, importers say, tends to come from higher farms.

That is where Loja comes in. Coffee grows across seven regions of Ecuador: Manabí, Carchi, Loja, Zamora-Chinchipe, El Oro, Pichincha and the Galápagos Islands. Loja, in the south, consistently produces some of the country's highest-scoring arabica, from volcanic soil and farms at roughly 1,200 to 2,000 meters.

Ecuador grows both arabica and robusta, from sea level to about 2,000 meters, and its most common varieties are Bourbon, Typica, Caturra and Sidra. On the Galápagos Islands, cool winds and volcanic soil produce a well-balanced, rounded coffee of their own.

This Loja lot is balanced: a floral aroma, chocolate and caramel in the middle, and citrus for lift. It works as a pour-over or in a French press.

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