El Dorado

Description

El Dorado is a natural Wush Wush from the Elder family’s farm in Loja, southern Ecuador. These rare Wush Wush coffee beans deliver pineapple, banana brûlée, lime and candyfloss, and it’s an exceptionally versatile coffee that performs beautifully as both espresso and filter.

Flavour Characteristics

Best As: Espresso (milk or black) and filter (black)

Flavour Profile: Pineapple | Banana Brûlée | Lime | Candyfloss

Origin & Producer Details

Producers: The Elder family & Bernard Uhe

Farm: El Dorado

Region: Loja, Ecuador

Altitude: 1,700–1,830 MASL

Variety: Wush Wush

Process: Natural (raised-bed dried)

Sourced Via: Makicuna

Suitable for

Espresso✓ Suitable

Filter Brewing✓ Suitable

Recommended rest

Days 0–27
Resting

Days 28–65
Best-tasting window

65+
Freeze

Recommended rest: For the best tasting results, we suggest brewing El Dorado 28–65 days off roast. A little patience lets its tropical sweetness come through beautifully. Read our guide to resting coffee for more. Learn why light roasts reward a longer rest.

Bought more than you can drink at its peak? Our guide to freezing coffee shows how to keep it tasting this good for months.

About El Dorado

From Almonds to Award-Winning Coffee

El Dorado is run by the Elder family together with Bernard Uhe, in the mountains of Loja, in southern Ecuador. The land was originally planted with almond trees, but the family saw far greater potential in specialty coffee and established the coffee farm in 2017.

Bernard also brings in CVM, an agricultural company with generations of coffee-growing experience in Ibagué, Colombia. That shared expertise has helped El Dorado grow remarkably quickly: in just a few years, the farm’s coffees have earned repeated national recognition, including placings in Ecuador’s Cup of Excellence and Golden Cup competitions.

The Farm

El Dorado’s micro-lots sit between roughly 1,700 and 1,830 metres above sea level. The farm benefits from mineral-rich mountain water, nutrient-dense soils and the steady, consistent sunlight that comes from sitting so close to the equator.

The team uses natural inputs such as neem and worm tea to support plant health, and grows an impressive line-up of varieties for such a young farm, including Green and Yellow Gesha, Sidra, SL28 and the Wush Wush in this lot.

About Loja

Loja sits in the far south of Ecuador, in the Andes close to the Peruvian border. Its high altitudes, cool nights and equatorial sunlight give coffee cherries a long, slow ripening season, which helps build sweetness and complexity in the cup.

Ecuador is a relatively small coffee producer, but a growing number of dedicated farms like El Dorado are investing in rare varieties and careful processing, and the country is quickly earning a reputation for some truly exceptional specialty coffees.

Wush Wush

Wush Wush is an Ethiopian heirloom variety, named after the Wush Wush area near Bonga in the Kaffa region of south-west Ethiopia, one of the birthplaces of Arabica coffee.

It’s still quite rare outside Ethiopia, but a handful of forward-thinking farms in South America have begun growing it, and it has quickly built a reputation for intense florals, bright fruit and a sweet, tea-like elegance. It’s often talked about in the same breath as Gesha, and it’s easy to see why.

Seeing an Ethiopian heirloom like this thrive at altitude in Ecuador is a real treat, and it’s one of the reasons we were so excited to add this lot to our line-up.

Natural Processing

In natural processing, the whole coffee cherry is dried with the seed still inside the fruit. As it dries, the fruit has a strong influence on the coffee, often bringing extra sweetness, body and ripe fruit character to the cup.

At El Dorado, the cherries are dried on raised beds: elevated, mesh-bottomed tables that let air flow all around the fruit. This slows drying down and keeps it even, helping the coffee stay clean while the fruit works its magic.

Paired with an expressive variety like Wush Wush, a carefully managed natural can be something really special: all the character of the variety, with an extra layer of juicy, tropical sweetness on top.

If you'd like to learn more, you can enjoy our extremely comprehensive coffee processing guide, which details all of the coffee processes that you're likely to encounter.

How to Brew This Coffee

Dial In With Accuracy

El Dorado is a delicate, expressive coffee, so accurately measuring your dose and yield will help you hit the sweet spot. We strongly recommend using a reliable scale — see our guide to the best coffee scales and our bench favourite, the Felicita Parallel.

Brewing Tips

El Dorado is a really versatile coffee: a juicy, aromatic filter, a vibrant espresso, and it holds up beautifully in milk too.

Rest window: Follow the recommended 28–65 days off roast for the best clarity and balance.

Filter brewing: Start with a 1:16–1:17 ratio and a medium-fine grind, adjusting to balance its pineapple brightness and candyfloss sweetness. Grind quality makes a big difference with filter, so here’s our pick of the best filter coffee grinders for home.

Espresso: Start with a longer ratio, such as 1:2.2–1:2.4, to showcase its tropical fruit and banana brûlée sweetness. Making milk drinks? Here’s what temperature a flat white should be. An even, level tamp matters here too; see our guide to the best coffee tampers.

My recipe: This one is really versatile, and it takes an updose well. On the Orea V4, start at 15.5 g coffee to 250 g water, and don’t be afraid to push it up to 16 g or more for a sweeter, juicier cup.

Explore More Recipes

To try recipes from world-class coffee brewers, explore our guide to the best filter coffee recipes of 2026.

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Text from Harmony Coffee's listing.