Cuenca is an Ecuadorian city 8.400 ft (2.560 m) above sea level. The center of the city is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Trust site because of its many historical buildings. 

Cafe de Ñucallacta is a cosy little coffee shop roasting and serving their own coffee.

Outside Cafe de Ñucallacta has its own little coffee tree

The owner Rumiñahui Duchicela, also called Rumi, has a passion for coffee. His goal is to produce the best coffee in Ecuador.

One of his favorites is the coffee from the valley Vilcabamba. Locals in Vilcabamba assert that it is not uncommon to see a person reach 100 years of age and it is claimed that many have gotten to 120, even up to 135, which would make it an area with the oldest inhabitants in the world.

The coffee from Vilcabamba is a winner!

I wanted to import unroasted Vilcabamba coffee to Norway, and Rumi was really helpful following me to both the local post office and a courier company. However, the bureaucracy in Ecuador is very strict when it comes to export of unroasted beans and the courier shipping prices are quite extreme. Fortunately I have now succeded in importing green Vilcabamba beans via a company in Germany!

If you ever go to Cuenca – a visit to Cafe de Ñucallacta is inevitable! In the meantime you may visit them online at cafenucallacta.com.

Visiting Kansas city we had the opportunity of visiting The Roasterie – a fantastic coffee roasting factory with a full size passenger air plane on the roof

While still driving we could smell fresh roasted coffee inside the car several hundred yards away from the factory

The Roasterie was founded 20 years ago and specialize in air roasting – they use heated air with precise temperature regulation to obtain the best possible roasting of their coffee beans

The owners of the Roasterie travel all over the world to find the best coffee beans, every year they produce one million pounds (450 metic tons) roasted coffee

The Roasterie also has a beautiful coffee bar serving all kinds of coffee drinks and a factory shop selling roasted and unroasted coffee beans as well as “user equipment”

I even got some really good green beans of Ethiopian Sidamo, these were roasted on the gas grill together with good American friends

It should not be necessary to tell that the coffee was really good!