20th December

Origin

Pedro Garcia Diaz owns 4 hectares of land in the San Francisco village, located in the district of San Jose del Alto. Pedro grows bourbon, tabi, caturra and pache varieties. His farm produces 80 exportable bags of coffee per year, it’s really little.

The coffee is selectively picked and then cherries are dried for 30 days in raised beds. Jose del Alto is an area with huge potential for quality coffee, located a 4-hour drive from Jaen. Some of the coffees from this area have a very distinct cup profile, full of complexity and bursting with floral notes and red fruits, not really common for peruvian cups. Unfortunately, the area is slightly isolated, with poor roads. As a result, it has received very little investment, both in general and in terms of coffee production. This lack of investment means many farmers remain unassociated, and there isn’t much of a presence from cooperatives or associations.

A word from the sourcer of this bag (Falcon here) : “While it is very challenging to work in San Jose del Alto, the quality potential and impact that can be made on producers make it worthwhile and one of the most exciting areas of Peru and Latin America. Alongside Honduras, Peru has historically been regarded as the discount Latin American origin of unremarkable and often unreliable quality. This reputation and its accompanying price discount are the results of supply chains focused on large volumes based on aggregated quality, built to serve roasters seeking value over remarkable coffee. This happens at the expense of Peruvian farmers who don’t reap the rewards of higher income through improved quality. We identified the problem as post-harvest processing. Farmers had received little to no training on the chemistry and precision required to maximise the quality of their coffees. We realised that if we provided training that demanded attention to detail, we would need to offer the financial incentive to reward those farmers who made the effort Falcon paid double the commercial rate for parchment in Jaen.

These farmers were selected based on their potential and willingness to produce outstanding qualities, and most were based in an area called Huabal. In 2022 we focussed on improving our operations and technical activities. This has allowed us to increase volumes and develop the in-house facilities at our dedicated warehouse space. As many smallholder producers lack on-farm drying infrastructure to dry their coffee properly, we also installed additional drying facilities close to the warehouse to enable producers to achieve optimum moisture levels and lock in cup quality that would otherwise be lost where coffee cannot be dried properly. In the Autumn of 2022, Peru was selected as the first origin at which to begin conducting in depth field research into carbon emission at farm level as part of our Carbon Project. (https://www.falconcoffees.com/beginning-the-knowledge-transfer-project/) From the end of October, we will continue training producers on best practice for fertiliser application as well as assist producers in diversifying varietals on their farms. As Falcon controls the supply chain from farmer to your door, these coffees qualify for our Blueprint Project label, where we can provide economic transparency data for every household that provided you with the coffee you purchased.

A new chamber (yeah, both fan of WuTang and this coffee):We believe that Peru has the potential to match up on quality to any of its origin counterparts in Latin America (like the incredible rising Equator with remarquable farmers such as Pepe (finca solidad), Yambamine, San Augustin etc). The altitude of the Andes combined with rich volcanic soils and tropical rainfall means that Peru has the ideal topography and climate for producing high quality coffee. The knowledge of post processing and fermentation process is finally being spread over there . This cup will give you a preview of what is comming .. !

A bubly cup ! With notes of mango notes, lemonade and walnut.

Recipe:

Preparation method: Aeropress
Grinding: 20 clicks on Comandante
Water temperature: 92 °C
Amount of coffee: 16 g
Preparation time: 3:00 – 3:50

Start timer and pour all the water as quick as possible to create agitation.
Seal the aeropress with plunger.
Let it steep until 2:20.
Remove plunger and stir once more.
Seal again with plunger and start pressing at 3:00.
Enjoy your lovely clean cup!