FUN FACT — Las Afiladeras translates to “the sharpeners,” a nickname coined thanks to the prevalence of knife-caliber grindstones in this region.

EVEN MORE FUN FACT — this is our SIXTH year featuring coffee from this farm! THAT’S ALL THE YEARS WE’VE EXISTED!

THE MOST FUN FACT — Las Afiladeras is run by a dude named ALBERTO JUMBO! WHO WE LOVE!

Alright now that we’ve gotten the FUN out of the way, let’s get to business: Ecuador is an amazing coffee-producing country, and yet one that’s still not totally ubiquitous among specialty roasters. For most of our collective coffee careers, it simply wasn’t a country you could take for granted on your menu: availabilities were slim, prices were high, selections were competitive, and “the flavor profile” was somewhat elusive and difficult to describe cohesively enough to plan for. So with all that said, representing the same farm for six straight years really feels exciting, and we’ll be rooting for six(ty?) more.

Regardless of precisely how long this stretch can sustain, we’re psyched to know that Alberto—helming this 5-hectare operation for over two decades—is now collaborating heavily with his oldest son, Luis Diego, on many aspects of the farm’s management. Sitting at 1,800 meters and with a healthy mixture of varieties, we’ve been delighted with the season to season diversity we’ve tasted from Afiladeras — always underpinned by sheer quality.

This year, we were struck by the BIG BLUE AND ORANGE (coughLETSGOKNICKScough) energy that the coffee emitted, with acidity characterized by soft dreamy citrus (tangerine) and an “I can only describe it as blue” quality to the sweetness — a stretchy, taffy, endless character that can be summarized no other way.

As seems to be the case every year, this coffee is easy to work — but never boring — across every brewing method.