Pepe Jijon produces fantastic coffee at his farm, Finca Soledad. Finca Soledad exclusively grows Typica, Mejorada, Geisha, and Sidra varieties. Pepe believes in introducing the least amount of necessary strain to the living embryo within each coffee seed through subtle iterations in the fermentation and drying stages. The farm has a limited production capacity and is in high demand.

The team at Finca Soledad hand-picks the coffee cherries at their peak ripeness. The cherries are cleaned, hand-sorted, and pre-fermented for 40 hours in cherry. They’re then dry-pulped and fermented for another 72 hours in mucilage. The seeds are then slowly dried in a dark room over 30 days. The “wave” refers to the temperature wave that occurs as the temperature changes from high to low during the drying process.

Pepe is a character. It was a blast getting to know him. While he is fun, his coffee is seriously great. The cup is rounded and sweet with stone fruit and floral notes. We taste apricot, orange blossom, blackberry, and honey with a gentle, brown sugar finish. While this coffee isn’t a face melter, it reminds us of why we love terroir-forward coffees just as much as all the fun processing coffees we’ve been releasing lately.