We have just had a new coffee arrive on the counter which we are very excited about. For a few years now we have been looking for a coffee with a straightforward flavour profile, which is also traceable and sustainably traded. It hasn’t been the easiest coffee to find, but with the help of our friends at Cultivar Coffees we think we are on to something perfect. We have talked before about the work that Lisanne Oonk, Theadros Mellink and the team at Cultivar Coffees do in Peru and they have found some fantastic coffees for us such as the Huabal which is full of fruity notes and punchy acidity. But we felt we had a gap on our counter for a coffee that tastes how one imagines coffee to taste. Cultivar understood what we were looking for and have helped us source a coffee from an area in Peru which is new to us.
Amaybamba is arriving on the counter in May – an uncomplicated kind of a coffee which is also certified organic and grown in the remote area of Incahuasi in the Cusco department of Southeastern Peru. Cusco, the capital of the Cusco region, is also the historical capital of the Inca Empire and the closest major city to the famous Inca sites of Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. Incahuasi itself lies to the west of Machu Picchu. We reached it by flying into Ayacucho from Lima and then driving for more than twelve hours (split across two days) along rural roads, full of switchbacks, up and down the Southeastern slopes of the Andes. The climate here is cold and dry. Water sources are hard to come by, and it is difficult to imagine growing much in the alpine desert. But a little further down into the mountain valleys the micro-climates are just warm enough to grow coffee, and water is corralled using irrigation.
The Incahuasi Cooperative has 530 members of which 350 are based in Incahuasi and 180 in Ayacucho. The majority of the farmers deliver coffee cherry to the cooperative, although some have their own micro-beneficios where they process individual lots. The first Cup of Excellence competition in Peru (2017) had a major impact on the quality of coffee in Peru and there is now a lot of emphasis on well-controlled processing and varietal selection. As well as the Amaybamba lot from the cooperative, we selected coffee from two individual farms – Marly Palomino and Julio Chávez – which will arrive on the counter soon. These coffees have a lively acidity and clarity of fruit, more similar to the Huabal.
Peru is a large country with a diverse topography and climate range. The influence of the Andes is tangible along with the rich history of terrace planting and complex water systems first developed by the legendary Incan engineers. There is great potential for a wide range of different flavour profiles and we’re thrilled to have these new coffees from Incahuasi on our counter.
Monmouth x