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 385 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. A lot of the drying structures we have seen at the coffee farms were built courtesy of funds from the association, investing into the coffee’s longevity and uniformity. Several of their members reliably place well in Peru’s Cup of Excellence competition.
Throughout the year we check in with José Prudencio, the association president, to learn more about how the group is evolving and expanding. It is our pleasure and privilege to get to work directly with these small scale producers year after year, and to be part of this ongoing cycle of quality. Through purchasing their coffees for premium prices we are allowing for reinvestment in their coffee plants and processing infrastructures.
The specific producers we are featuring in this espresso release are Juan José Huillca Singuña, Felicitas Ñahuincamasca Huillca and Ignacio Chaina Molleapaza.
The Producers:
Juan has been producing coffee on his 2-hectare farm, Finca San Antonio in Alto Cedruyoc, since 2015. Coffee production is a family endeavour on the farm, and Juan is working in tandem with his wife and two children. They are continually working to produce high quality coffee, of both Bourbon and Maragogype varieties, and Juan uses his experience as an agronomist in tending to their crops. When visiting some of the Valle Inca members with the group president, José Prudencio, we were able to connect with Juan for dinner and he was very humble and forthcoming, even after a long day of picking and processing coffee with his family. The family farm is quite remote, amidst lots of native wildlife and vegetation, which Juan does his best to preserve and respect. As well as mature coffee trees that are already bearing fruit, Juan tends to a small nursery of coffee seedlings which allows the family to replace sick and tired trees as well as expand their production. They are working organically at Finca San Antonio, applying natural fertilisers to their coffee trees and growing the coffee under shade canopies. At harvest time Juan and his family collect the ripe coffee cherries and just last year they have introduced a holding or resting stage before depulping the cherries of 96 hours. The cherries begin to soften and macerate before manually depulping and subsequently undergoing a 36 hour anaerobic fermentation in sealed barrels. The coffee is then scrubbed and washed, the loosen the broken-down mucilage, and it is put to dry for between 9 and 15 days on raised beds in polytunnels, which were built courtesy of funds donated by the Valle Inca Association. Transitioning to this processing approach from a more traditional style of fermentation we are experiencing a slightly rounder cup from Juan, with more plump fruit and a longer finish, whilst retaining a clean, silky mouthfeel.
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. 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.
Ignacio Chaina Molleapaza grows coffee on Finca Las Orquideas, with 3.5 hectares planted out with Bourbon. The farm is elevated at 1,950 metres in Versalles in the Santa Teresa district of La Convención province in Cusco. They have been working in coffee since 2018, and are wholly focussed on the production of specialty coffee. Like Juan and Felicitas, Ignacio has evolved their processing since working with Valle Inca to do small batch processing utilising an ‘anaerobic’ method by sealing the fermenting coffee after depulping in airlocked barrels. The process takes between 24 and 48 hours after which it is fully washed and scrubbed before drying slowly on raised beds.
The classic ‘terrior’ flavours of Cusco bring milk chocolate and cooked apple to the cup, with Bourbon and Typica genetics allowing for a robust sweetness with aromatic top notes. Through the ripe cherry selection and style of post-harvest fermentation we taste a very deep-set, complex sweetness like fig jam, with a slight veer into toasted coconut aromatics. The finish is very caramelly and soft. We hope you enjoy drinking the hard work of these Valle Inca Association growers!
