About This Coffee
Bracamoros takes its name from the historic Bracamoros groups, indigenous to the region straddling what is now northern Peru and southern Ecuador. It’s a name that speaks to the deep roots and strong identity of the area where this coffee is grown. The lot brings together the work of smallholder farmers from across Jaén and San Ignacio, two of Cajamarca’s most important coffee-producing provinces, at altitudes ranging from 1,900 to a lofty 2,400 meters above sea level.
Each farm (known locally as a chacra) is intercropped with vegetables and other food crops grown for household consumption, a practice that also encourages many producers to avoid herbicides in favour of manual weeding. Harvesting is carried out using a combination of hired labour and Ayni, a traditional system of communal work in which neighbours exchange labour across farms. Once harvested and processed at the farm level, the dried coffee is transported to our partner’s warehouse in Jaén, where each lot is cup-profiled and assessed before being selected and blended into the final Bracamoros lot.
Cultivation
Farms across Jaén and San Ignacio operate predominantly as smallholdings. Weeding is carried out primarily by hand, with chemical herbicides used sparingly – in part because most farms are intercropped with vegetables and food crops for household consumption, making farmers understandably cautious about herbicide use.
The diverse altitudinal range across the two provinces – from 1,900 to 2,400 meters above sea level – means growing conditions vary considerably from farm to farm, contributing to the complexity of the final blend. The primary varieties cultivated are Caturra, Bourbon and Typica, all well-suited to the cool temperatures and distinct wet and dry seasons characteristic of this part of Cajamarca.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Coffee is selectively hand harvested, collecting only fully ripe cherries, using a combination of hired labour and the traditional Ayni communal system. After harvest, cherries are floated – most commonly in ceramic tanks, or alternatively wooden tanks – to remove defects and underdeveloped fruit. The coffee is then rested overnight before being pulped the following day.
Once pulped into tanks or buckets, the coffee ferments for an average of 24 to 48 hours, with duration varying according to altitude, local climate and timing of the harvest. After fermentation, the coffee is washed and prepared for drying. Drying methods vary across the region: many producers now use raised beds and covered parabolic dryers (approximately 14 days), which have contributed significantly to improvements in cup consistency. Some continue to dry on tarpaulin mats laid directly on the ground, functioning as traditional patios (approximately 7 to 10 days depending on weather). Once dried, coffee is bagged and transported to the warehouse in Jaén for analysis and blending.
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.