Vicente & Miguel Japon

Producer: Vicente & Miguel Japon
Origin: Quilanga, Loja, Ecuador
Elevation: 1950 MASL
Variety: Typica, Yellow Bourbon, San Salvador (Field Blend)
Process: Washed
Roast Level: Light
Importer: The Coffee Quest
Flavor Notes: Grapeade, Cherry, Vanilla, Loud

This makes our third harvest working with this beautiful field blend from father and son duo, Vicente and Miguel Japon.  This years lot is a favorite of ours year on year for its drinkability and balance but this years lot comes off much louder and juicer than years past.  Grapeade vibes on fleek.   

Vicente and Miguel Japon own and operate their farm Finca Los Alisos which sits at 1950 MASL and is located in Quilanga, in the Loja Province of Ecuador. Finca Los Alisos is about 3 hectares in size and has about 5000 coffee trees in production of the Typica, Yellow Bourbon and San Salvador varieties. Vicente Japon is of the older generation of Ecuadorian coffee farmers, having produced coffee for many years and selling it as low-grade naturals, or “bola” as they call it in Spanish. A fact that blew my mind is that washed coffees were not even produced in Southern Ecuador 20 years ago and there are still some producers who don’t have de-pulpers! You learn something new everyday…

With prices so low during the past decade, many of his children decided to not focus on coffee and instead look for other lines of work that offered better pay. However, his youngest Miguel, had noticed the trend towards specialty coffee and the better prices that come with it. A couple of years ago, he invested in a de-pulper and started to investigate specialty with other producers in the region. He also accepted technical assistance offered by the government to understand the process of producing specialty coffee. Since then, the team has focused exclusively on specialty, producing stunning Washed lots year over year.

Our release here is a washed process field blend of the three varieties Vicente and Miguel grow on their farm (Typica, Yellow Bourbon and San Salvador). The process starts by picking the ripest cherries, floating them to sort out any over/under ripe cherries and letting them ferment in cherry for 24 hours. Then the cherries are de-pulped and left to ferment in mucilage for an additional 48 hours before being washed. The coffee then is dried between 12-15 days, depending on the weather.

Big ups to our bud Stephen from The Coffee Quest for setting aside a couple bags of this years lot for us.   It has been such a treat to see this lot evolve over the last three harvests and this years profile is a step in a juicer, and louder direction than the previous two harvests we offered. One of the more unique profiles of tart tartaric acidity, round and syrupy body and a lasting and sweet finish.

In the cup we get some big grapeade vibes and koolade which is such a fun and unique profile for a washed-field-blend.  These purple vibes are rounded off with a cherry like sweetness and a lasting vanilla syrup quality that really comes out as the cup cools.  This years lot does have through-lines to the years prior, but all in all, Vicente and Miguel have a really special and more vibrant version of what we've grown to expect, and love from their field blend.  

This is our second release from Ecuador this season and can't wait to look towards next!