Peru: Mirador Anaerobic

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Details

COFFEE GRADE: Amazonas Catuai Anaerobic FW

FARM/COOP/STATION: Finca Timbuyacu

VARIETAL: Catuai

PROCESSING: Anaerobic fermentation

ALTITUDE: 1,620 meters above sea level

OWNER: Alfonso Tejada Iberico & Karim Rosario Araoz Grandez

SUBREGION/TOWN: San Nicolas Rodríguez de Mendoza

REGION: Amazonas

FARM SIZE: 68 hectares

AREA UNDER COFFEE: 30 hectares

HARVEST MONTHS: March – September

Sensorial: Blackcurrant Black Tea Citrus Fruits Dark Chocolate Plum

About this Coffee

Alfonso Tejada Iberico inherited Finca Timbuyacu from his mother, who had inherited it from her own mother, Eleodora Mori de Ibérico. Eleodora has been a source of inspiration for both Alfonso and his wife, Karim Rosario Araoz Grandez. The farm’s name comes from a story that Eleodora used to tell Alfonso about a spring on the farm that had so much water it would gush out of the spring as if it were boiling. The name Timbuyacu comes from the Quechua words “timbu”, meaning boiling, and “yacu”, meaning water. In order to keep his grandmother’s legacy alive, Alfonso started the “Nueva Esperanza” project in 2010, together with his wife Karim, after selling their own Lima-based travel agency and going back to Finca Timbuaycu to create a model farm. Under their supervision, Finca Timbuyacu has become the heart of Cafe Monteverde’s efforts. The couple are committed to improving the social conditions of the other small producers in the region and see the business as a way to help local producers market their coffee in better conditions. The most important element of it all is the role Finca Timbuaycu plays as a model farm; all members of the cooperative can visit it to learn about their management and harvesting, as well as post-harvest practices like fermentation, washing and different drying methods. Finca Timbuaycu specializes in teaching its members a variety of skills that enhance the quality of their production.

Cultivation

In order to highlight the unique growing conditions on the farm’s different regions, Alfonso and Karim have created farm segments based on cultivation characteristics.

When they first planted coffee trees in Timbuyacu, everybody told them nothing would come out of them. They were warned the land was not fertile and their yield would have never been significant. However, under their caring supervision, the quality of their harvest and of their coffee has increased year after year. Timbuyacu achieved the 12th spot in the 2017 Cup of Excellence.

Of Finca Timbuaycu’s 68 hectares, 38 are destined to forest reserves that protect native plants and wildlife species The conservation areas also protect the farm’s lake and brook by providing a natural barrier that slows erosion and prevents pollution.

Alfonso’s grandmother, Eleodora, used to cultivate coffee, yucca, corn, bananas, sugar cane, pineapples, beans and many other fruit trees. She erected stone piles (Pilancones) to mark the different crops. These “pilancones” are still part of the farm’s landscape. Before she died, Eleodora gave her land to her children, including Alfonso’s mother. Today, Alfonso and Karim also grow yucca, bananas, beans, vegetables, oranges and pineapples.

Harvest and post-harvest

Cherries are selectively hand-picked and then processed on the farm. Coffee is stored in airtight containers and anaerobically fermented for 18-42 hours. After fermentation, the parchment is washed in clean water and then laid in thin layers on drying beds and patios. The parchment is frequently turned to ensure even drying. It takes about 15-20 days for the parchment to dry.

About Monteverde

Café Monteverde has relationships with a wide range of producers and producers’ organizations. In addition to producing an array of their own micro-lots from Finca Timbuyacu, Alfonso and Karim focus on the provision of a range of services for the members-producers, helping them market their coffee. Monteverde helps member farms take steps to ensure good soil management and conservation. Members plant living barriers and diverse shade trees, and add contour lines to reduce erosion.

Caffè in Perù

The country is the largest exporter of organic Arabica coffee in the world. With extremely high altitudes and fertile soils, the country’s smallholder farmers also produce some stunning specialty coffee.

Even though coffee arrived in Peru in 1700, little of it was exported until the late 1800s. Until then, most of the coffee produced in Peru was consumed locally. When coffee leaf rust hit Indonesia in 1800, a country central to European coffee import at the time, Europeans started looking for a solution elsewhere. Peru was a perfect option.

Between the late 1800s and WWI, Europeans started investing important resources into coffee production in Peru. However, with the advent of the two World Wars, England and other major European countries lost power and developed a less colonialistic approach. When the British and other European landowners left, their land was acquired by the government and given to the locals. The Peruvian government bought back 2 million hectares of land that had been granted to England and distributed them to thousands of local farmers. Many of them later started growing coffee on the lands they received.

Today, Peruvian coffee growers are mainly smallholders. Peruvian farmers usually process coffee on their own farms. Most of their coffee is fully washed. Cherries are usually pulled, fermented and sun-dried on raised beds or drying sheds. Drying greenhouses and African beds are becoming more common as farmers focus their attention on specialty markets.

After drying, coffee parchment is sold to cooperatives. Producers who are not members of a cooperative usually sell it to a middleman.

The remoteness of farms combined with their small size means producers need middlemen or cooperatives to market their coffee. Belonging to a cooperative makes an incredible difference for farmers both in terms of protection and income. However, only around 15-25% of smallholder farmers are members of a cooperative as of today.