The Producer:
Felicitas owns Finca Santa Elena which is a 10-hectare farm planted out in part with coffee, predominantly of the Typica cultivar. Located in Yavero, Quelloúno in the La Convención province of Cusco region, the farm is situated at 1,950 metres with the coffee planted under native shade and amidst various other fruit bearing trees. There is a strong community feel and history of coffee production in the area, with Felicitas and her neighbours practicing ‘Mingas’ (communal reciprocity) with the notion of ‘Ayni’ (today for you, tomorrow for me) when it comes to tasks like harvesting and pruning coffee trees.
Their Approach:
Felicitas uses a method of batch processing whereby harvested coffee cherries are first floated and manually depulped before sealing in an airlocked barrel to ‘anaerobically’ ferment. This stage of fermentation can be done ‘dry’, where the mucilage-covered parchment is exposed to the elements, or ‘wet’ where it is submerged under water, likely fermenting slower due to the cool temperature, and potentially more evenly, but less intensely. Fermenting in a sealed environment produces CO2, which if you have a one-way valve fitted on your tank/barrel means that oxygen is slowly depleted and expelled from the environment. This will alter the types of microbes populating during the fermentation and consequently alter the flavour profile. We like that this process allows the producer to process small pickings or larger harvests ‘evenly’, meaning that multiple lots or outturns are more uniform and predictable. Really pushing these sorts of ferments can introduce layers of ‘funky’ characteristics, but if managed with expertise you are able to taste a balance of the flavours deriving from the terroir and cultivar bolstered and enhanced by the processing rather than covered up with ferment flavours.
After fermentation the coffee is fully washed, and this water is reserved to irrigate the coffee trees. The clean parchment is dried on raised beds for up to 15 days before storing and ultimately being collected by José and the team at Valle Inca to take to their warehouse in Calca.
The Association:
In 2018, our first year buying coffee through Valle Inca, the group had around 100 members. Thanks to word of mouth, with producers telling their neighbours of the premium prices that they were able to receive having been able to access a more discerning coffee market through the association, the group now works with around 300 producers in the Cusco region and have recently expanded their operations to include Puno. All the members are working organically and are certified as such via the Valle Inca group. For a member to join, there needs to be a baseline of quality met, dictated in part by altitude and the type of varieties planted, but ultimately it is down to the desire of each member to improve their quality through hard work. The group provide agronomical advice and training as well as pre-financing, so the farmer members are supported in multiple ways. Several of their members reliably place well in Peru’s Cup of Excellence competition.
