INSTANT COFFEE - ECUADOR TYPICA NATURAL

My wife and I didn’t come from a family of coffee growers, 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, positively impact the community by leveraging the unique geographical conditions of our country, and 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 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, and 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 a good cup of coffee.

Many know that instant coffee is commonly made using two methods: spray drying and freeze drying. There is a third method, but unfortunately, very few companies can afford the high cost overhead. However, one day, we have our eyes set on it. 

For now, we choose freeze drying, which involves sublimation, vacuum, heat, and time. Firstly, no other company brews concentrate like we do. By using a cold chain technique throughout the entire process—from grinding and brewing to storage—we keep everything cold and freeze our trays as quickly as possible before the freeze drying process begins. The biggest enemy of instant coffee is the loss of volatiles, so we make sure to grind and brew cold to capture all the sweetness and acidity. We also incorporate extra preparation steps to ensure our outcome is 100% repeatable, achieving 25%-28% extractions using less physical coffee weight than any other competitors. We meticulously dial in our freeze drying batches for specific lots, ensuring we are not adding unwanted heat and maintaining maximum efficiency without loss of time. Think of instant coffee like roasting—every variable matters. 

Next up is our post-process. As you can see, we believe that having a thoughtfully designed product matters. That’s why our instant coffee looks like dust. Most companies simply scrape up the product and call it a day, but by making our particles smaller, we enhance the experience by keeping every packet consistent. Many aspects go into our instant coffee that most would overlook when producing. 

Our Instant coffee has held up to 4 years with no issues and continues to be fine though we do notice a slight flatness in the body and a little less sweetness but still safe to use.

We enjoy this with 226g to 284g ( 8-10 oz ) of hot water or cold water. If you want to use it as a espresso do about 2oz of hot or cold water and about 6-8oz of your choice of dairy or non-dairy.