Abdon Quilla Ochochoque

Born in 1976, Abdon has spent his entire life in the Puno region where coffee has been the lifeblood of his family. After the passing of his father, Abdon knew he needed to find a different way to generate income for his family. This is when he decided to enter into the world of specialty coffee in hopes to attain higher premiums. The small plot of land that he has inherited from his parents has proven to be difficult to tend to, but with the assistance of local cooperatives, Abdon has learned techniques that have helped take his coffee production to the next level in terms of productivity and quality.

Catuaí

This lot of coffee is what we would describe as a “field blend”; meaning that it’s a blend of the different varieties that Abdon grows. Lucky for us, the composition is of most sought after heirloom varieties. Typica is often seen as the mother of most arabica species. Hand selected from Southwest Ethiopian forests, the variety was first cultivated in Yemen during the 15th century before slowly migrating to every corner of the world. It’s famous for a high cup quality that showcases a clean sweetness and bright acidity.

The Bourbon variety is a genetic mutation of Typica that was brought to Réunion Island (formerly Île Bourbon) by French missionaries in the early 1700s. For over 100 years the Typica that traveled from Yemen mutated on the island before missionaries left and brought new generation seeds with them to other growing regions as they traveled. Bourbon officially entered into Latin America via Brazil in 1860. The variety is renown for its balanced sweetness and has either mutated or been cross bred into dozens of new Latin American varieties.

Gesha is another variety that originated in the wild forests of Ethiopia, but this one was directly sent to a research center in Tanzania before making its way to Latin American coffee research centers. Since the Gesha variety had migrated so quickly, it didn’t have the chance to properly mutate to one environment which resulted in dozens of different versions of the variety. The most sought after now is technically labeled as “T2722” or “Panamanian Gesha”. Unlike other versions of the variety, it showcases a high florality with notes of tea and stone fruit.

Washed, 15-20 hour aerobic fermentation

Abdon Quilla has been working closely with the technical assistance program through a local cooperative to fine tune his traditional washed process. The current recipe he is using is a 15-20 hour aerobic fermentation after depulping the coffee cherries. The mucilage on the coffee seeds is then washed off to stop fermentation before being laid out on raised beds. The seeds are then dried for 10-20 days, depending on the current temperatures and humidity of the region.