Ecuador Ricardo Vargas

About this coffee

As customer familiarity with individual farmers grows, it's exciting to be able to release the fresh harvest from the same producers year-on-year. As in wine, becoming familiar with particular coffee producers is part of the fun and appreciation. This is the third year we’re roasting Ricardo Vargas’s washed Caturra. Each year we cup it alongside other Ecuadorian coffees, and each year it’s the best.

Ricardo Vargas established his farm, Finca Vallejito, eight years ago after leaving a career as a food engineer. His father-in-law was a coffee farmer so Vargas often helped out on his farm during planting and harvest times. Vargas saw the potential to make a profit by focusing on growing high quality coffee for the specialty market and to impact the local community through job creation. Vargas and his wife Miriam Vallejo named their farm Vallejito in memory of her father whose community-minded ethos has been a big influence on them.