Quillbamba to Quebrada, today. Each week the farm truck does this route in reverse, picking up parchment coffee in each community. Another 5 hour, bumpy, dirt road drive through the Yanatile valley.

We arrive in Quebrada about midday and check into our hostel for the night. Some are disappointed that this building has no hot water. Luckily, for me it’s the new normal. Soup at the local cafe with the locals, coca leaves for the boys with the sick stomachs and we are off for another half hour drive for a coffee producer meeting.

Of the 60 or so coffee farmers that work with HVC and Cafe Verde in this area of Quebrada about half show up for the community meeting.
Each American introduces him or herself and a little about their hopes in working with this community. I talk about the potential that this community has for producing some of the best coffees in the world with the huge advantage of high altitude and heirloom Typica trees. I try to stress the importance of selecting ripe cherries, clean fermentation, and carefully drying the coffee.

The producers ask questions about price (price is not solid at this time),
and about the fear of not making the specialty cut. Again KC stresses the key factors the producers must concentrate on in order to meet the specialty grading and pricing. One: mature fruit and ripe cherry selection,two: clean, controlled fermentation at the farm level and three: carefully drying the coffee so it does not mold or develop phenolic flavors.

After the meeting, we visit one of the coffee producers farm. Zemosia Alffado has been a coffee farmer for 50 years. He lives with his family near Quebrada on about 4 hectares of coffee and a little coca. His fermentation tank is newly tiled and he is extremely proud to show it off. We are invited for coffee in the family’s home. What an honer it is to enjoy his coffee at his home I’m humbled.

After the farm visit as the sun sets we head back into Quebrada for a delicious Pollo dinner. Word is out on the streets that some funny looking people from the north are in town and we have children running by laughing at all through dinner.