22-23 Peru
Lot 01/10 from
Agro Café Jaen S.R.L. via
Catalyst Trade

From Catalyst Trade:

Sometimes it takes a village. Or in this case, a community, and that’s what this lovely lot from the Colasay, Pimpingos, and Huarmaca areas of San Ignacio Province, Cajamarca represents. Eight farmer-producers (neighbors and extended family members, in some cases) have worked hard throughout the year to cultivate, grow, harvest and process their coffees. 

As is the norm here in Peru, each farm has its own micro mill, with either a hand pulper or one attached to a small gasoline motor. Pulped beans are routed into a tank for fermentation (17-24 hours, usually, depending on the temperature), and afterwards are washed three times before being spread to dry under solar tents to keep the frequent mists and rains off the drying parchment. Once moisture reaches the optimal level, the producers bag up their coffee and bring it to the nearest collection center for their cooperative.

Contributors to this lovely community lot are Ernesto Vasquez, Wilmer Valera Cubas, Arnulfo Llanos Cubas, Santiago Guevara, Segundo Paz Goicochea, Jose Fernandez, Martin Alaya Guerrero and Mario Vela.

From these collection centers, the coffee heads to over the bumpy and sometimes perilous route to our exporter partner’s warehouse in Jaén to be weighed, sampled, and physical and analyzed in conjunction with our own OQC (Obsessive QC department at Catalyst Trade). 

Cupping and QC complete, the 69 kg (152 pound) bags are loaded back on the trucks (one bag on one shoulder at a time, with producers tag-teaming up and down a plank from ground to truck bed)and moved to a nearby dry mill facility to receive the final processing and bagging necessary to ready it for its trip over the mountains to a port city and on the ship to the USA! 

The Cajamarca Region

High in the Northern Andes of Peru, where clouds wrap peaks in mist and roads call for more than a common level of bravery, is the Cajamarca region. This was once the domain of the Incas, and people here wear that heritage with pride. Hardworking, friendly, hopeful, neighboring farmers form close knit communities. 

Electricity is not a given here, cell phone service is anything but reliable, and in the more remote areas, schooling and medical service can only be reached by navigating roads that give the staunchest 4-wheel-drive vehicle a run for its money. Though their circumstances are not easy, coffee producers of Cajamarca continually work with each other to improve their communities, their coffee, and their lives.