Wide Awake Coffee Juicebox 250g

Overview

Taste Profile
Sticky sweet, bright and complex. Notes of peach, watermelon with a brown sugar finish and a green apple acidity. Truly a fruit explosion, yum!

Taste Notes
Peach, Watermelon, Green Apple, Brown Sugar

Green Coffee Info

Origin Peru
Region Huabal
Farmer Jose Quispe Avellaneda
Variety Castillo & Caturra
Processing Washed
Elevation 1700-1900m
Jose Quispe Avellaneda owns four hectares of land in the village of la Esperanze in Huabal district. The farm is broken up into four separate parcels of land, which are in slightly different areas within the village, with the lowest sitting at 1700masl and the highest at 1900masl. Jose hires seasonal workers to pick and process his coffee and he and his family take care of the coffee once it’s drying on the patio. Jose ferments his coffee for 24 hours, before washing and placing on plastic mats to dry. Drying in la Esperanza is generally faster than in other villages since the altitude is lower and thus the temperature higher, so coffee takes around 6 to 7 days to dry, but Jose makes sure that it dries evenly and that parchment temperatures don’t exceed 40 degrees.

The region

Huabal is a district within the Jaén province of Cajamarca. The district spans a couple of mountains, so the climate conditions and soils vary considerably, with some areas having wet, humid conditions and red, African-like soils and others dry and hot conditions. The region has a huge potential for diverse and complex quality coffees. Unfortunately the infrastructure is very poor and many of the producers lack resources and knowledge to unlock the region’s potential. In the past many producers had been regenerating their farms with catimores (a hybrid of the Timor Hybrid and Caturra) as this was promoted by the government and multinational buyers. However in higher altitudes, Catimores rarely produce much and the quality is poor. Now with the premiums farmers are receiving for quality coffee, more and more are re-planting caturra, bourbon and catuai. With the right management and fertilization, these varietals produce a much better cup quality.

We source this coffee in cooperation with Falcon (a specialty coffee importer). Falcon has set up a warehouse in Jaen to buy parchment directly from producers. This way they are not dependent on local buyers and can ensure that the premiums they – and we – pay for this coffee, flow back to the producers and pickers. In Northern Peru, 75% of producers are unassociated (not part of a cooperative, association or organisation) and don’t have access to training sessions. Often, local aggregators (buyers who live in the same area) will go to the farm or house of a producer and buy their coffee for cash before selling it on; in some cases, directly to an exporter or more often to other traders and middlemen. This results in the producer being paid very little for their coffee and a lot of quality coffee getting lost. Falcon’s local organization is key to improving coffee quality in the region and to increasing producer household incomes.