Organic vs Conventional Coffee: What's the Difference and Does Organic Coffee Taste Better?

The Mysterious Inca Capital

Peru, the mysterious capital of the ancient Inca Empire, borders Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil and Bolivia to the east, and Chile to the south. The Andes Mountains run through western Peru, creating a dry highland climate, while the eastern Amazon plains feature a humid tropical climate. The convergence of these two distinct landscapes and climates creates rich microclimates with significant day-to-night temperature swings, making Peru, like Colombia, a naturally blessed paradise for coffee cultivation. After the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in the 16th century, coffee was introduced to Peru around the 18th century.

Natural Organic Coffee Beans

Peruvian coffee fields are mainly distributed in the northern Cajamarca region, southern Cusco, and the Nopa area. Over 60% of the coffee varieties are Typica, with others including Bourbon, Caturra, and Catimor.

As the world's eighth-largest coffee-producing country, Peru began exporting coffee in large quantities as early as 1887. In the past decade, recognizing the enormous market potential for organic coffee in Europe and America, Peru has leveraged its unique advantages. Coffee fields in Peru's mountainous regions lack running water and electricity. Impoverished indigenous farmers have traditionally practiced organic cultivation and still cannot afford or use pesticides and chemical fertilizers today. The government has consequently developed the organic coffee industry, providing certification guidance and issuing organic certificates to qualified producers to facilitate exports.

Quality Among Affordable Options

With low production costs for organic coffee, Peru has become the world's largest and most affordable exporter of organic coffee. The other two major organic coffee-producing countries, Mexico and Ethiopia, have higher selling prices. Peruvian authorities aim to develop the country into the world's premier organic coffee nation, much as Vietnam dominates as the world's largest Robusta producer. This low-price strategy has, however, drawn criticism from many producing countries. Although Peru may engage in price dumping of organic coffee, that does not mean specialty coffee has disappeared. At the 2010 SCAA "Coffee of the Year" cupping competition, Typica from Cecovasa in Tunkimayo, a small town in the Puno region of southeastern Peru, scored 89.2 points, narrowly defeating the renowned Geisha from Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda to secure fifth place.

Tips: Organic Coffee

Organic coffee emphasizes cultivation without chemical fertilizers and pesticides, using organic fertilizers or farm manure instead and adopting traditional shade-growing methods. This happens to be the preferred growing method for the ancient Typica and Bourbon varieties. Yields per hectare, however, are only several hundred kilograms, far below the several tons achievable with inorganic cultivation, which results in higher production costs. Organic coffee also requires certification by international organizations to establish credibility. Essentially, in more underdeveloped and impoverished producing countries, farmers cannot afford chemical fertilizers and pesticides, so most adopt the most natural organic cultivation methods; yet those same farmers cannot afford certification fees, and so lose the endorsement of organic certification.

Specialty: Chanchamayo

Chanchamayo is renowned for producing Peru's highest quality coffee, grown under natural conditions that make it absolutely organic. Chanchamayo coffee typically grows in the Andes mountain valley regions at altitudes of 1,350-1,500 meters. Belonging to the Blue Mountain-origin Typica variety, it is processed using mountain spring water washing methods, resulting in a rich, mellow micro-fruit acidity and a smoothness that leaves an endless aftertaste.

Organic versus inorganic coffee: which tastes better? This writer cannot answer definitively, since it involves a series of post-harvest processing steps. One can only say that while on the tree, organic coffee appears healthier.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Whether or not a coffee carries an organic certificate, the way it is grown and processed always shows up in the cup, and Brazilian coffee is a good place to taste the difference. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate comes from Mogiana in Sao Paulo state, where fertile red volcanic soil gives the cherries abundant nutrients, and the estate grows the rare Yellow Bourbon variety, a natural mutation of Red Bourbon with a cleaner fruit character. Roasted to a medium level, it shows creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut aromas with a rounded body that is not acidic and carries a light, pleasant bitterness, and it works as pour-over, moka pot, espresso, or French press.

If you prefer a more classic Brazilian profile, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Red Bourbon is grown at 1,000 meters in Cerrado Mineiro and processed by the semi-washed method, which saves water and shortens drying time, reducing the risk of over-fermentation and mold. It delivers the stable, rounded chocolate and nutty notes typical of the region, making it a dependable everyday cup whether you drink it as a single origin or use it in a blend.