About This Coffee
The Rutas del Inca Agrarian Cooperative has been working hand in hand with its associates since 2013. Currently, the organization works with around 300 small coffee-producing families as partners, who cultivate their coffee at around 1,700 - 2,350 meters above sea level.
Rutas del Inca sets itself apart in the Peruvian coffee landscape as a young, quality-driven cooperative that leverages its incredible micro-climate to produce some of the finest coffees in the country.
Their production area is also quite different than most parts of the country. The farmers of Rutas del Inca grow their coffee at high elevations, wholly encased by mountains. Therefore, the weather remains cool throughout the year, thanks to winds that breeze through in the middle of each day.
Rutas del Inca has been consistently excellent since we first started working with this coffee. As soon as you put it on the cupping table, it is very recognizable. This coffee is produced in an area with a rich history and a diverse microclimate, and I think that is reflected in the complexity of this coffee. It really has everything.
Cultivation
Members of Rutas del Inca cultivate coffee in a unique microclimate of Peru, characterized by cool weather and high altitude that contributes to slow cherry maturation and, eventually, in a particularly sweet and rich cup profile. Coffee in the region thrives under varying shade cover: 15% sun-grown, 50% partial shade, and 35% shade-grown.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Ripe cherries are selectively handpicked to ensure quality and uniformity, then carefully hand-sorted to remove overripe, unripe or defective fruit. Coffee is also floated in buckets to help remove any underripes, lightweight or damaged cherry. Coffee is then pulped on contributing farms before undergoing fermentation in tanks for 48 to 96 hours, depending on climate and altitude. Once fermentation is complete, the parchment is washed with clean water until all mucilage is removed. The parchment is then dried on patios, in solar dryers or on raised beds for between 10 to 28 days, followed by resting under controlled conditions. When moisture content reaches 10–12%, the parchment is delivered to the Rutas del Inca cooperative collection center, where it is hulled to produce green coffee ready for classification and export.
Coffee in Peru
Peru holds exceptional promise as a producer of high-quality coffees. The country is the largest exporter of organic Arabica coffee globally. With extremely high altitudes and fertile soils, the country’s smallholder farmers also produce some stunning specialty coffees.
Though coffee arrived in Peru in the 1700s, very little coffee was exported until the late 1800s. Until that point, most coffee produced in Peru was consumed locally. When coffee leaf rust hit Indonesia in the late 1800s, a country central to European coffee imports at the time, Europeans began searching elsewhere for their fix. Peru was a perfect option.
Between the late 1800s and the first World War, European interests invested significant resources into coffee production in Peru. However, with the advent of the two World Wars, England and other European powers became weakened and took a less colonialist perspective. When the British and other European land owners left, their land was purchased by the government and redistributed to locals. The Peruvian government repurchased the 2 million hectares previously granted to England and distributed the lands to thousands of local farmers. Many of these farmers later grew coffee on the lands they received.
Today, Peruvian coffee growers are overwhelmingly small scale. Farmers in Peru usually process their coffee on their own farms. Most coffee is Fully washed. Cherry is usually pulped, fermented and dried in the sun on raised beds or drying sheds. Drying greenhouses and parabolic beds are becoming more common as farmers pivot towards specialty markets.
After drying, coffee will then be sold in parchment to the cooperative. Producers who are not members of a cooperative will usually sell to a middleman.
The remoteness of farms combined with their small size means that producers need either middlemen or cooperatives to help get their coffee to market. Cooperative membership protects farmers greatly from exploitation and can make a huge difference to income from coffee. Nonetheless, currently only around 15-25% of smallholder farmers have joined a coop group.