• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Coffee Review

The World's Leading Coffee Guide

Advanced Search

  • Reviews
    • Latest Reviews
    • Top-Rated (94+)
    • Espressos
    • Best Values
    • Top 30 Coffees of 2022
    • Taiwan Coffees – 台灣送評的咖啡豆
    • Pods and Capsules
    • Reviews by Country of Origin
    • Reviews by U.S. City
    • Green/Unroasted
    • Advanced Search
  • Reports
    • Latest Reports
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia-Pacific
    • Espressos
    • Annual Top 30
    • Processing Method
    • Social/Environmental
    • Tree Variety
    • Blends
  • Equipment
    • Interpreting Equipment Ratings
  • Journal
    • Preview – 2023 Tasting Reports
    • 2023 Editorial Calendar
    • How Coffee Review Works
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Kenneth Davids
    • Our Team
    • Our Advertisers
    • Our Sponsors
    • Learn
      • Interpreting Coffee Reviews
      • Reference
      • Glossary
    • Contact Us
  • Trade
    • 2023 Editorial Calendar
    • Becoming an Advertiser
    • Campaign Package Deals
    • Getting Coffees Reviewed
    • Quoting Reviews
    • Award Certificates
    • 2023 Media Kit
  • 中文 – Chinese
    • 評介和獎章宣傳使用條款
    • 台灣送評的咖啡豆
    • 如何將您的咖啡送評
    • “行銷攻略” 促銷活動
  • Members
    • WHY BECOME A MEMBER?
    • Member Benefits
    • Our Sponsors
    • Programs and Initiatives
    • Member Support

Shop for top-rated coffees at Durango Coffee Company

Shop for No. 1 coffee of 2021 at Paradise Roasters

Shop for top-rated coffees at Amavida Coffee Roasters

Shop for Top-rated coffees at Barrington Coffee Roasters

Shop for top-rated coffees at Kakalove in Taiwan

Shop for top-rated coffees at GoCoffeeGo

Shop for 93-point Yemen coffee at Baba Java


Coffees from the Americas : Ecuador Coffee

Courtesy of Kenneth Davids, 21st Century Coffee: A Guide

Ecuador, the smallish Andean country sandwiched along the Pacific coast between Colombia and Peru, shares many of the characteristics of Peru as a coffee-growing land. These include high-altitude terroirs ideal for producing Arabica coffee and a conservative-tending industry of small-holding producers who have tended to stick to standard Latin American tree varieties, particularly Typica. The traditional Ecuador cup, to the degree that it still exists, resembles the classic Peru cup.

But Ecuador’s recent coffee history has diverged significantly from Peru’s. Through the early 1990s, Ecuador was a major coffee producer, with almost all of that production Arabica. However, Ecuador’s production has fallen to about 40% of the volume it produced in 1990. In recent decades, the leadership in Ecuador has focused on other exports like oil, shrimp, bananas and coffee already processed as instant or soluble.

Unlike Peru or Colombia, Ecuador now grows significant quantities of Robusta coffee to add to its production of low-altitude, poor-quality dried-in-the-fruit Arabicas locally called café en bola. These low-quality coffees are used to fill the needs of a flourishing in-country instant coffee industry; in 2014, 87% of Ecuador’s coffee exports were soluble coffee powder and only around 13% green coffee. Current soluble coffee production is down from that peak owing to increased electricity costs and higher wages for workers. Nevertheless, Ecuador’s internal coffee production is not enough to feed its soluble-coffee factories, so significant quantities of cheap Robustas are imported from Vietnam.

Specialty Rebound

From the point of view of a coffee aficionado, however, there is a positive side to this picture. Since there appears to be no viable market for decent-quality commercial coffee in Ecuador, increasing numbers of progressive small-holding producers have focused on small, high-end lots of exceptional coffees, often using a direct trade model. To encourage this trend, the National Association of Coffee Exporters (Asociación Nacional de Exportadores de Café or ANECAFE) has organized an annual green-coffee quality competition called Taza Dorada (Golden Cup) that rewards producers of top-quality small lots.

The result has been a small but growing number of very fine small lots of Ecuador coffee, pure and increasingly distinctive. They express both the exceptional nature of some Ecuador terroirs as well as the virtues of traditional varieties like Typica.

Ecuador Varieties

Traditional Varieties.

Mainly Typica, well-naturalized to Ecuador terroirs. Also other classic Latin America varieties, particularly Bourbon and Caturra.

Newly Introduced Varieties.

At the high-market end of variety experimentation, at least one specialty grower has produced small but fine lots from SL28, the variety responsible for most of Kenya’s fine coffees. Others have planted Sidra, a rare, sweet-cupping variety that recent research suggests is an Ethiopia landrace variety.

Ecuador Processing Methods

Traditional Methods.

For specialty coffees, processing is most often done by the traditional ferment-and-wash method, performed by small producers on the farm, as it is in Peru. As for the cheap coffee going to the soluble coffee factories, the norm is careless dried-in-the-fruit or natural processing, also on the farm.

Newer Non-Traditional Methods.

Some specialty producers are experimenting with carefully executed natural processing, often with impressive results.

Ecuador Growing Regions

Two Ecuador regions are best known for their specialty production: the more traditional high-elevation Loja Province adjacent to the Peru border in the south and the more dynamic north-central Pinchincha region close to the capital, Quito.

Ecuador Coffee Ratings and Reviews

Click here to view ratings and reviews of coffees from Ecuador.

  • Dominican Republic Coffee
  • Mexico Coffee
  • Guatemala Coffee
  • El Salvador Coffee
  • Honduras Coffee
  • Nicaragua Coffee
  • Costa Rica Coffee
  • Panama Coffee
  • Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee
  • Puerto Rico Coffee
  • Haiti Coffee
  • Colombia Coffee
  • Venezuela Coffee
  • Ecuador Coffee
  • Peru Coffee
  • Brazil Coffee
  • Hawaii Coffee
  • Bolivia Coffee
  • Primary Sidebar

    Shop for top-rated coffees at Durango Coffee Company

    Shop for No. 1 coffee of 2021 at Paradise Roasters

    Shop for top-rated coffees at Amavida Coffee Roasters

    Shop for Top-rated coffees at Barrington Coffee Roasters

    Shop for top-rated coffees at Kakalove in Taiwan

    Shop for top-rated coffees at GoCoffeeGo

    Shop for 93-point Yemen coffee at Baba Java

    Become an advertiser

    Get Coffees Reviewed

     

    Shop for No. 1 coffee of 2021 at Paradise Roasters

    Connect with Us

    Sign Up for Our Free E-Newsletter

    Enter your email address below to receive our free e-mail newsletter
    • Coffee Reviews
    • Tasting Reports
    • Reference
    • Glossary
    • Please Support Our Advertisers
    • Contact Us
    • Journal
    • Kenneth Davids
    • Interpreting Coffee Reviews
    • Roast Definitions
    • Caveats about Coffee Ratings
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Getting Coffees Reviewed
    • Advertising Opportunities
    • Quoting Reviews
    • Copyright
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Site Security

    Copyright © 2023 Coffee Review. All Rights Reserved.