About This Coffee
Cristobal Laura Coarite is a second-generation coffee producer who inherited his land from his parents, where he cultivates Caturra, Bourbon and Geisha. In Mancuari, a region that has faced challenges from criminal activity, coffee has provided Cristobal and his family with a stable and secure livelihood. For Cristobal and many other producers in the area, coffee is more than a crop, it’s a pathway to a decent living income and a better quality of life.
Cultivation
Cristobal has been growing coffee since 1995, following methods passed down from his parents. As coffee is his family’s primary source of income, he partners with Valle Inca to enhance soil health and improve coffee quality, ensuring sustainability and excellence in every harvest.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cristobal and his family selectively handpick ripe red cherries and process them on the farm. He visually sorts and then floats the cherries to ensure only top-quality cherries are processed. Cherries are then pulped into a plastic barrel and fermented for 36 hours. Following fermentation, Cristobal washes the parchment in clean water and lays it out on covered raised beds to dry. He rakes the parchment frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 16 days for the parchment to dry.
About Geisha
Geisha (also known as Gesha) is known for its exceptional cup quality, especially when grown at high altitudes. The variety comes from Ethiopian landrace coffees and was collected from Ethiopian coffee forests in the 1930s. The name supposedly derives from Ethiopia’s Gori Gesha forest.
There is some confusion with several genetically distinct varieties that have all been called Geisha, but the most famous variety is the Panama one. The variety was brought to Lyamungu research station in Tanzania and from there to Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Central America in 1953. At CATIE, the variety was logged as T2722. CATIE distributed T2722 across Panama in the 1960s for its Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR) resistance, but its brittle branches meant it was not widely planted.
Panama Geisha reached its modern fame in 2005 when a Geisha lot won the “Best of Panama” competition and broke contemporary records at over $20/pound. DNA analysis has demonstrated that the Panama Geisha descended from T2722 is distinct and uniform. Today, Geisha is known for its delicate florals, jasmine and stone fruit.
Valle Inca
Jose Prudencio founded Valle Inca in 2015. He is coffee man through and through and native to the region. He saw the rise and fall of the major secondary cooperative, COCLA, through his parents who were coffee farmers in the region. When COCLA collapsed, coffee farmers in the region struggled to access services and sell their coffees at fair prices. After working several farming-related jobs, Jose formed Valle Inca to serve coffee farmers in his home region and beyond.
Jose Prudencio is the driving force behind Valle Inca, he is supported by a small team of locals, many of them are the young adult children of coffee growers who belong to Valle Inca. The main focus of Valle Inca lies on improving living conditions for farmers through production of high quality coffee. By applying good agricultural practices and renovating with varieties focused on cup quality, Valle Inca has managed to turn things around for the 400+ producers in the network. With the vital support from an organisation like Valle Inca, producers are making fair wages and able to invest in their farms again.
For high-end lots in smaller volume with producer traceability, Cusco is a treasure trove. Prices for Valle Inca suppliers are higher than with other suppliers in the country, which is directly benefiting the producers behind each coffee. With the premiums, farmers are managing to improve their houses, invest in the farm and take good care of their families. Valle Inca exports to international markets as well as to the local market. You can find the coffees from the network in specialty coffee shops across the country.
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.