Inti means Sun in Quechua (the Andean language). Tahuantinsuyu, or The Four Empires of the Sun, is the original name of the empire ruled by the Inca before spanish invasion, nowadays comprising the territories of Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia.
Sweet and tart with floral, almond, and coffee cherry.
100% Arabica – Filter & Espresso
Cajamarca
Cajamarca is a semi-dry, semi-cold, tropical highland of Peru with very fertile soil at high Andean mountain elevations. All of these factors contribute to the potential of specialty coffee production in the area, which is growing.
Smallholder producers farm on 2-3 hectares of land, many of which practice organic farming. Most farmers in the area work independently, but the recent increase in cooperatives has been effective in increasing the quality of coffees produced in the area.
Regional Select
The Regional Select program offers coffee beans sourced based on cup quality and character, seeking a balance of “taste of place” with availability and price. These lots are built as blends from coffees that cup out between 84–87 on a 100-point cupping scale, and come with regional and often micro regional traceability, but are not farm- or producer-specific.
As an origin, Peru has all the conditions necessary to produce world-class coffee: Its high elevation; prominence of good varieties like Typica, Bourbon, and Caturra; and a quality-focused movement among smallholder growers, especially in cooperatives utilizing organic husbandry, is very encouraging for the future recognition these lots will deservedly receive. We seek a softer profile in our Regional Select coffees from Peru, with a marriage of cocoa, lemon, toffee and caramel, almond, and soft fruit like plum or sweet cherry.
Washed
The vast majority of coffee in Perú is Washed, and many producers own their own wet-milling equipment, though smallholders may also deliver cherry to a central processing unit or cooperative for processing. The coffees are usually depulped the same day they are harvested, and given a 12–18-hour open-air fermentation before being washed clean of mucilage. (The fermentation time may be longer in cooler areas at higher elevation.) Drying styles vary in Perú, and coffee may be dried on patios, raised beds, in parabolic dryers, or mechanically.
Catimor, Caturra, Bourbon, Typica
Although this lot is not traceable down to a single variety, it is comprised of a blend of Catimor, Caturra, Typica, and Bourbon — the most commonly cultivated varieties in Peru.
Peru
Though coffee arrived in Peru relatively early—in the middle of the 1700s—it wasn’t cultivated for commercial export until nearly the 20th century as demand from Europe rose due to a significant decrease in coffee production in Indonesia. British presence and influence in the country helped increase and drive exports. In the early 1900s, the British government took ownership of roughly 2 million hectares of land from the Peruvian government as payment on a defaulted loan, and much of that land became British-owned coffee plantations.
As of the 2010s, Peru is one of the top producers of Arabica coffee, often ranked fifth in world production and export of Arabica. The remoteness of the coffee farms and the incredibly small size of the average farm have prevented much of the single-farm differentiation that has allowed for microlot development and marketing in other growing regions, but as with everything else in specialty coffee, this is changing quickly as well. The country’s lush highlands and good heirloom varieties offer the potential for growers to beat the obstacles of limited infrastructure and market access, and as production increases, we are more likely to see those types of advancements.
Coffee at your house, every month
100% Arabica
Filter & Espresso
Sweet and tart with floral, almond, and coffee cherry.
