Ecuador Yunguilla & Chito Community Blend

Region: Yunguilla Valley, Azuay & Chito, Loja, Ecuador

Elevation Grown: 1,400-1,800 MASL

Variety: Mixed

Process: Natural

Tastes like: Honey, Lemon Pound Cake, and Milk Chocolate

This coffee brings together two distinct growing communities in southern Ecuador: Yunguilla Valley in Azuay and the Chito Community in Loja. Rather than coming from one single farm, this blend is built through CafExporto’s relationships with producers across both regions, with each lot selected only after meeting their quality standards in the cupping lab.

Yunguilla sits in a warm, open valley between the Andes and the coastal lowlands. It’s known for its steady sunlight, volcanic clay-loam soils, and a softer, sweeter cup profile. Chito, farther south near the Peruvian border, represents a community of small producers whose coffees we’ve been lucky to share before. Together, these regions create something that feels both approachable and deeply rooted in place.

What makes this blend especially exciting is the structure behind it. The producers involved are part of CafExporto’s Juan Peña certification system, which tracks coffee from farm through processing and dry milling. CafExporto also provides ongoing training, agronomic guidance, and quality control, helping producers maintain consistency while still letting each region show up clearly in the cup.

This lot is naturally processed, beginning with ripe cherry selection before a slow drying phase on raised beds or solar drying rooms. The goal is sweetness, balance, and clarity. Not just big fruit for the sake of big fruit. In the cup, we’re tasting honey, lemon pound cake, milk chocolate, and a soft caramel-like sweetness.

It’s sweet, clean, and comforting, with just enough fruit character to remind you it came from a carefully handled natural process.

Thank you to CafExporto for the information and images from Yunguilla and Chito.