My wife and I didn’t come from a family of coffee growers; in fact, until 15 years ago, our professional lives were centered around banking in my case, and social development in my wife's case. However, we always longed to have a family project that would allow us to fulfill ourselves in other aspects of our lives, to positively impact the community by leveraging the unique geographical conditions of our country, and to position our country as one of the best producers of specialty coffees... That’s how we started what, in hindsight, has been the riskiest and most exciting adventure of our lives.

On our journey to excellence, we seek to improve with each harvest. That’s why, in this year’s harvest, we have implemented more careful and controlled processes in the post-harvest phase, such as double fermentations, anaerobic processes, etc.

Two factors; first, definitely the terroir. We are located in the high Amazon region, in a humid forest ecosystem where the soil is permanently enriched by the ashes of the El Reventador volcano, located in front of the farm. We are the only farm in Ecuador with an active volcano fertilizing its lands. The second factor is its people—the people of Cascabel, who have embraced coffee as part of their community, recognizing in coffee a sense of pride and connection with people from different parts of the world.

As I mentioned earlier, I have two activities—I still work at a bank, and I also work on the farm on weekends. When I’m at the farm, I usually start my day at 6:00 a.m. and go around the farm with the farm manager, supervising each of the lots and coordinating pending tasks. After lunch, I exchange messages with local and international clients, and depending on demand, I lead coffee tours for both national and foreign tourists.

To showcase our country, Ecuador, as a place with a unique and exotic origin of specialty coffees, and to have Cascabel recognized as a community of passionate coffee enthusiasts, offering unique tourist attractions to the world; we aim for the coffee to connect this part of Ecuador with the rest of the world.

When we started this adventure, we didn’t know much about the vast world of coffee and how challenging it could be, and I speak for myself, my family, and the community of Cascabel, where our farm is located. It has taken us 10 years to learn, to understand more about the soil, the plants, their varieties, the processes, the cycles, the diseases, and it is this learning that has led us to pursue excellence—a level of excellence that can only be achieved through the passion that coffee inspires in us. Coffee has the power to change lives, families, and communities. Coffee has given us a purpose.

Of course, since we started this project, one of the pillars has always been to maintain long-term relationships with all our stakeholders, and with this goal in mind, we work hard to maintain the consistency of our coffees. We strive to respond to the needs and demands of other players in the coffee world, such as baristas, roasters, and consumers.

To anyone who enjoys our coffee, we want to say thank you. Thank you for recognizing and appreciating the hard work and effort behind every coffee bean. May each cup of coffee connect you with Josefina, its terroir, and its people. May each sip connect you with the passion that surely you, like us, share for coffee, for a good cup of coffee.