El Cedro has about 1 hectare of coffee and is located in Bomboca, a village in Colasay district in Jaen province. They have 200 trees of a local Bourbon, which is common in this area, and 1000 trees of Catuai. It’s a small family operation. The farm has a small beneficio with a mechanical pulper and a fermentation tank where Eyner processes the coffee. Colasay is an area previously underdeveloped for coffee production, but there has been a lot of investment in recent years because of its untapped potential. We're very excited to taste more coffee from this region in the future!
We visited Eyner for the first time in 2022. Him and his wife live in one of the remotest areas we've ever visited - 8 hours by car from the nearest working airport to the town of Jaen, 1.5 hours by car roughly from Jaen to the local receiving village, then another 30 minutes by car to his house and a 45 minute steep climb up a hill to find him on his farm.
He uses a donkey to move most of his picked cherry down from the farm to his wet mill at his house. Having inherited his farm from his parents, nearly all his neighbours are cousins or distant family - his connection to the land is significant and important. At around 2,000 m.a.s.l. and growing traditional Bourbon, he has everything that might be expected to produce great quality, but with a lack of access to a good buyer and to agronomic information he still has a lot more potential to achieve from the farm. That means that this year’s lot is significantly smaller than last year’s (though thankfully equally delicious!).
It is through the work of Origin Coffee Lab (and their receiving station in Einer's local village) that this coffee is possible. Without them, we would never have known about Einer and he would never have received the support needed to begin to improve his agronomic practices and work towards a more sustainable future
