Hakuna Matata - Ecuador

Notes: Hibiscus, peach and strawberry
Origin: Pichincha
Producer: Henry and Verena Gaibor
Altitude: 1350 masl
Variety: Sidra
Process: Honey

Information:

Henry Gaibor and his wife Verena first met in Burundi in 1996, both volunteering for Doctors Without Borders. Henry as a war-trauma surgeon from Ecuador, Verena as a war nurse from Switzerland. After running a medical clinic in Quito for 13 years, they chose to dedicate themselves to another passion: coffee.

Their farms, Maputo and Hakuna Matata, sit in La Perla, Nanegal, in the province of Pichincha. Though relatively low in altitude, the valley traps high humidity and afternoon mist, while cool nights gently stress the coffee cherries into producing more sugars. Henry and Verena operate their own micromill, controlling every step from wet-milling to drying. This lot is the Sidra variety, processed as honey - cherries are picked ripe, depulped the same day, then dried in their mucilage on raised beds for 20 to 25 days.