Juan Peña - Oak Barrel Anaerobic

by Black & White

MEET THE PRODUCER | Coffee enthusiasts and barista competitors will likely need no introduction to Juan Peña and his storied farm, Hacienda La Papaya. The farm itself has been in Juan's family since the end of colonial rule in Ecuador, but it was Juan who planted the first coffee trees on the land back in 2010. A few years later, in 2014, a violent storm wiped out his entire rose crop, and it was only then that Juan turned his undivided attention to coffee cultivation and processing. His education as an agricultural engineer, as well as his background in horticulture, have fueled Juan's meticulous and scientific approach to coffee production - earning him both international recognition and several shoutouts from the competition stage. TRUST THE PROCESS | Freshly harvested cherries are placed in spent rum barrels to ferment for five days in a closed, anaerobic environment. In a previous life, these rum barrels had been used to age Ecuadorean rum for over 20 years, resulting in a diverse