What does it mean to be a smallholder coffee farmer?
Agustin Ccasa Ccoyo’s farm, Finca Progreso, is nestled in the mountainous Huaynapata area, high in Peru’s Yanatile Valley. At 2,150 metres above sea level, it’s remote, rugged and ideal for slow ripening, high density coffee but it’s not easy to get to. So remote, in fact, that when Valle Inca need to visit or coordinate a pick up, they send word via a radio station in the next town, Quebrada. If Agustin’s within earshot, he’ll hear it.
That level of isolation means everything on the farm is done with intention. The family live simply, solar powered electricity, a wood fired kitchen, and a small, self-sustaining ecosystem that includes fruit trees and chilli peppers alongside the coffee.
Tall trees, clean air, volcanic soil
Agustin grows Red and Yellow Bourbon on rich, black volcanic soil. The farm sits above 1,850m high enough that coffee leaf rust (Roya) and coffee borer beetle (Broca) are rarely a threat. But the challenge here is humidity.
To manage this, Agustin allows his coffee trees to grow tall and strips away lower branches, improving airflow and reducing the risk of mould. It’s a simple but effective form of organic canopy management. The trees reach over 3 metres in height, too tall to harvest directly, so his team, made up of the same trusted workers each season, use ropes and hooks to bend them gently for picking.
Thoughtful fermentation, clean results
After harvest, cherries are floated, then fed through a manual disc depulper. What follows is a carefully controlled, sealed fermentation: parchment coffee is packed into GrainPro sacks, which are then sealed inside a plastic barrel with a one-way valve to allow for degassing. As the naturally occurring microbes break down the sticky mucilage, CO₂ builds and escapes, creating an environment that promotes even, controlled fermentation over 24–36 hours.
After washing, the coffee is dried on tiered raised beds inside a ventilated solar dryer, giving a consistent, gradual dry, a crucial step for stability and clarity in the final cup.
This is our sixth season buying from Agustin, and each year his coffee tells a more refined story. This latest release, roasted for espresso, is clean, structured and sweet, with a depth that speaks to the landscape and care behind it.
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