Giomar - Fine Robusta from Ecuador

The new harvest of this limited Fine Robusta of the Napo Payamino variety from the Amazon region in Ecuador amazes us. Produced by a small cooperative in the Chakra agroforestry system. Dried as natural and imported by Giomar, which is now repositioning a long-underestimated coffee. The aroma of the coffee reminds us of fresh raspberry muffins, before caramel and walnut-like flavors take over. A combination that we have never tasted before.

Giomar - coffee information

Roasted for espresso, espresso-based milk drinks

Origin: Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, Loreto, Orellana, Ecuador

Producers: WITOCA cooperative

Varieties: Napo Payamino , 100% Robusta

Post-harvest process: Fermentation for 120 hours in barrels, then dried in the cherry

Arrived at the roastery: December 2022

This is how we would prepare the Giomar

Tell me more about Giomar's work

Giomar Hidalgo, or simply Gio, roasted coffee, served it, and now imports it from her native Ecuador. The WITOCA cooperative in the Amazon is a small cooperative that Gio has been working with since the beginning. She likes the exchange and appreciates that the cooperative is run by women. WITOCA plants coffee in the agroforestry system, i.e. between existing trees. In the native chakra cultivation method, they forego external inputs and protect the rainforest. This natural from the Canephora variety Napa Payamino convinced us. This variety is a local clone and produces very large beans. The coffee itself has a lot of acidity, and the intensive post-harvest process gives the coffee its berry and caramel notes.

Why does the coffee taste good? the way it tastes?

The WITOCA cooperative has specialized in special types of processing. In addition to washed canephoras, they make many honeys and more and more naturals - but the high humidity in the Amazon region places high demands on the post-harvest processes. WITOCA can make the naturals, the cherry-dried coffees like this one, in August and September because it hardly rains then. Fermentation for 120 hours in a sealed barrel creates the berry aroma of the coffee. It retains a fine basic acidity and shows clean, walnut-like notes on the finish.

Why did we buy this coffee?

Because he shows like no other how the often maligned Canephora (Robusta) can taste when exactly the same precision and philosophy as top Arabicas are used. He shows the diversity of coffee and teaches us all to take a fresh look at tastes we have learned.

How do we roast these coffees?

We roast the Napa Payamino from WITOCA as a 15kg batch, so with a little more coffee than we would roast a filter coffee, but with less coffee than we roast other complex espressos (20kg). Why? Because we prefer a quick roast for canephoras. Canephoras contain twice as much chlorogenic acid and break down into caffeic and quinic acid during the roasting process, which can cause more bitterness in longer and hotter roasts. Through the short roasting with a lower final temperature, we retain the naturally occurring freshness in the coffee and focus on the velvety texture. We roast for 10:50 minutes with a development time of 1:40 minutes.