Young producer Germán Carranza Barbosa is the ideal candidate for providing this year’s Touchy Coffee tribute to love, XOXO 2026. Still in his late 20’s, German has been tending to his garden of offbeat arabica varieties for the past 7 years in his corner of Amazonas, Peru. We admire his extremely hands-on approach to growing and processing coffee on El Bebedero and are pleased to present…

X O X O  ❤️  2 0 2 6

Maragogipe is a MOUTHFUL to read, sound out and say! It’s also, as a coffee variety, a HANDFUL to brew, with its extremely LARGE sized beans! Nicknamed “Elephant Beans”, Maragogipe is understood to be a natural mutation of Typica, found in Bahia, Maragogipe, Brazil in the 1870s. This variety is considered one of the parents of Pacamara, a variety that has far surpassed its predecessors in popularity among producers and consumers alike. 

How does this relate to XOXO? How do we find love in an XL coffee seed? On the one hand, Germán’s careful skill in producing such a finicky seed is masterful. On the other hand, his choice to employ a traditional washed process technique to it is brilliant and love-worthy, allowing the variety and its reaction to El Bebedero’s nano-climate shine through. Where our industry is currently overrun with fermentation freakscenes and co-fermented spice jobs, we can only hope that young producers like Germán can continue to forge a path learning from past masters based in tradition

In XOXO’s cup, we witness a soft bing cherry-like aroma and flavor, giving way to a smooth dark chocolate lava cake taste and texture, leaving us with a lingering, steadfast impression that sings A BIG BIG LOVE long after the carafe is empty. 

Gigantic, indeed!