Our wild coffee – the Lagunillero

We discovered this coffee plant growing wild when we first explored our project land in 2013/2014. This type of coffee is a mutation of the Typica variety “Criollo”, which was probably spread by local birds in the canyons and has obviously changed over time to a variety with unique characteristics. We lovingly named it after the area where it was discovered: “Lagunillero”. It is a low-bearing variety with medium-sized cherries. In 2017 we sent a sample of it to friends of a roaster in Hamburg. The result surprised us: full-bodied, peach, apricot, chocolate and honey. A coffee with potential for absolute top coffee between 85 and 91 points. As wild coffee in a class of its own, a bean for the real coffee lovers. Grown 100% ecologically wild, with limited occurrence of just a few plants per hectare, the Lagunillero at its level of incomparable high quality will remain an absolute rarity of a few kilos per year.

Self-declaration on our wild coffee

Coffee origins from the highlands of Ethiopia. As a result, real native wild coffee only exists there. Until today there is no international standard for the use of the term “wild coffee”, which would also include feral crops in other countries outside of Ethiopia, and there are no standardized parameters for the evaluation of “wild coffee” in general.

Therefore we transparently disclose which criteria we use to describe our endemic Lagunillero as wild coffee :

  1. Maintaining a closed positive definition of activities we carry out: harvest only. Exceptions: Every now and then older plants may be cut back and small aids towards the spread of populations may be applied.
  2. Maintain an open negative definition of the activities we do NOT apply. These are all the regular tasks involved in cultivating crops: watering, applying fertilizers or chemicals, cutting surrounding shade trees or bushes, all types of soil improvement or measures to drive out predators and insects