In the south of Ecuador, on an idyllic plateau surrounded by the mighty Andes Mountains lies the small village of Vilcabamba. From Quechua, the language of the Inca, the name translates as “Holy Valley”. This place is especially blessed; nowhere else in the western world are more people who grow as old as this, and enjoy the best of health at the same time. The cultivation of coffee has a long tradition for the people of Vilcabamba. Julia Avelina Leon, now 97 years of age, is a grandmother many times over and has a great passion for the precious bean: “If I couldn’t drink coffee, one of the most beautiful things in my life would be missing.” During the harvest, between June and October, the families pick the ripe, red cherries and clean the beans in the water of the nearby Mountain Rivers. Then the coffee is slowly sun dried and hand sorted. Thus a coffee of extraordinary quality is created. Only small quantities of this coffee are produced each year as it is cultivated primarily through manual labour and family businesses.