Welcome to another edition of Field Notes! In this month’s edition, we’ve got a report from a recent visit to our partners in Peru, plus some excellent new arrivals from Costa Rica.
Cupping coffee at HVC Exportaciones
Depulping coffee at El Romario
Drying coffee in parchment in the greenhouse
Making compost at Finca Churupampa
Drying coffee along the roadside in Cajamarca
Visiting our partners at Perunor
A Visit to Our Partners in Peru
From July 16th to July 22nd, I was in Lima and Northern Peru visiting our producer partners.
I started in Lima with Hugo and Diego from HVC Exportaciones, visiting their dry mill. The morning consisted of a meeting, a cupping, and a tour of their dry mill. The next day, we flew from Lima to Chiclayo and drove six hours to Jaen in the Andes Mountains. One interesting bit is that Chiclayo, Peru was the last residence of Pope Leo XIV prior to his move to Vatican City.
I visited three different suppliers based in Jaen. Over the next three days, I went to the towns of La Coipa and Chirinos as well as a number of farms and the factories of our partners. The first farm I visited, El Romario, is three hectares and an average of 1,667 meters above sea level. El Romario produces about 20 finished bags per hectare with most of his coffee being of the Pache variety. We saw a good example of the processing techniques of Northern Peru: the coffee was depulped the first day, placed in large plastic bags, and sealed for fermentation. The next day, the coffee was washed and set out on tarps to dry the surface. From there, the coffee was transferred to greenhouses and dried on beds for an average of 12 to 15 days.
In addition to visiting farmers, I visited the warehouses of our three partners. The largest and most modern was HVC’s warehouse, which was about five years old. The warehouse is just outside the town of Jaen and can hold up to 60,000 bags. This warehouse is a standard dry mill, with receiving, cleaning, huller, screening, a gravity table, and color sorters. The coffee that is processed here is taken to another warehouse in Chiclayo, loaded in a container, and taken to the port in Paita.
The next day, I visited with Finca Churupampa. We first went to their warehouse in Jaen, met the staff, cupped some very nice coffees, toured the facility and drove to Chirinos. Finca Churupampa creates a compost that they sell to the farmers. What makes this compost unique is that it is in pellet form and has a longer life when put out in the field.
I spent my last day in Northern Peru with another longtime partner, Perunor. We went to Cajamarca and visited a few farms and another warehouse. The coffee was processed similarly to the other towns I visited, but its terrain was fairly challenging. The flattest areas to dry the coffee were on the main road or right next to the road, making it difficult to drive around at some points. We finished our day at a warehouse that our partner rents out with a full dry mill and a cupping lab.
The coffees from all three partners were very solid with good balance and nice sweetness. While it was early in the harvest for cupping and evaluating coffees, there were already a few microlots that stood out.
Peru is a very large country and traveling there has its challenges. Locations are a good distance from each other, and the terrain is nothing like what I have traveled to in other coffee origin countries.
We will have an inventory of coffees from northern Peru later this year, and I am looking forward to their arrival. If you have any questions about my trip or our Peruvian offerings, please reach out — it would be my pleasure to discuss with you.
Report by Drew Zent, Senior Manager Green Coffee
available now
COSTA RICA, LA GLOXINIA
Our final new crop arrivals of La Gloxinia have landed at the Annex! This excellent coffee comes from small farmers in Santa Maria de Dota, and showcases that area’s famous profile: a lively acidity and plenty of fruit.
Availability: Annex CA
Certifications: N/A
Cupping notes: Cherry, chocolate, brown sugar
COSTA RICA MICROLOTS
Last month’s newsletter focused on our incoming microlots from Costa Rica, and they’re now available at CTI. We expect these to move quickly, so take a look at the link below to see what we have in stock!
Availability: CTI NJ
Certifications: Various
Cupping notes: Various
That’s all for this month’s edition. Thanks for reading, and as always, if there’s anything we can do for you, reach out to your salesperson or fill out our contact form and we’ll get right back to you. See you next month!