Peru Chanchamayo Region Hand-Picked | Organic Cultivation Washed Arabica

Peru Chanchamayo Coffee: Hand-Harvested, Organically Grown Washed Arabica Flavor Profile

Peru's coffee beans are grown in La Florida, in the northeastern highlands of the Andes. The area is home to Chanchamayo, the most famous of Peru's nine coffee-producing regions. It belongs to a high-altitude rainforest zone where plantations sit between 1,200-1,400 meters above sea level. With an average annual temperature of 17-30°C and annual rainfall of 1,500-2,000 mm, this is an ideal place to grow coffee. The two best-known growing areas here are Villa Rica and La Merced, and Typica Arabica is the primary variety.

Peru's coffee history goes back to 1930, when a group of German immigrants settled in what is now the Villa Rica region, started cultivating coffee, and brought new cultural vitality to the area. That gave the region a distinctive human character, and to commemorate those newcomers from afar, June 26 is marked each year as "Settler's Day." Many local coffee farmers today are descendants of those immigrants, continuing to run these treasured estates generation after generation.

La Florida itself is a cooperative established in 1965, originally made up of 100 farming families, and it has since grown to nearly 1,200 farmers. Each family typically cultivates only 2-3 hectares of coffee. On their plantations they use only natural fertilizers and avoid synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. The cooperative has its own technical team, small loan services to help housewives cover household expenses, a small medical clinic, and funds set up to buy coffee-processing machinery for the cooperative.

Peru's coffee beans are cultivated and harvested entirely by hand. After harvesting the ripe cherries, the pulp and skin are removed, followed by washed fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, the beans are sun-dried naturally to keep them from picking up earthy flavors or other impurities. The coffee shows a sweet-and-sour profile with very few impurities and a remarkably clean cup. For a South American coffee, the quality is quite excellent.

Villa Rica is a prosperous, lively small town in the eastern Andes. It has extensive ecological conservation forest and is a well-known bird sanctuary - remarkably, 400 bird species have been recorded there. That shows how friendly Villa Rica is to the natural environment. Coffee is grown at around 1,500 meters, with an average annual temperature of 20°C and annual rainfall of about 1,800 mm - excellent conditions for coffee trees to develop.

Farmers use organic composting, and primarily grow Typica. The green beans are extremely stable in quality. Harvest runs from April through September. After harvesting, the green beans undergo washed fermentation and natural sun-drying. Coffee from Villa Rica has a particular creamy, nutty aroma, a warm, thick, and smooth mouthfeel, excellent sweetness, and a slightly elevated fruit acidity in the finish that leaves a comfortable aftertaste.

The town lies 350 kilometers north of Lima. The area is densely covered with mountains and forest. Though it sits in a tropical rainforest region, the growing altitude is high enough, combined with oceanic climate regulation, to keep annual temperatures and rainfall quite suitable. It is the most famous and highest-quality producing area among Peru's coffee regions.

Most Peruvian smallholders own about two hectares each. Because they are poor and cannot afford chemical fertilizers or pesticides, almost all practice organic farming and process and sell their crop through cooperatives. Generally speaking, Peruvian coffee is characterized by a full, balanced profile, which makes it very suitable as a component in blends.

Cultivation Details

Planting altitude: 800 - 1,100 masl (Meters Above Sea Level)

Annual rainfall: 600 - 1,400 mm p/y

Varieties: Typica and Caturra

Certification: Organic

Processing method: Washed

Key Features

• The cultivation areas are extensively planted with fruit trees called "INGA," known locally as Pacay, which not only provide good shade but also food for birds during the flowering and fruiting seasons.

• Small farmers organize production cooperatives and establish a complete mechanism for green-bean sales.

• Almost every farm has complete green-bean processing equipment so the coffee can be processed at the optimal time after harvest.

• The cooperative provides further refinement and grading screening, and the green beans are properly bagged and exported directly to buyers in various countries, which protects storage timeliness and avoids quality damage from improper storage when shipping is concentrated at Lima port.

• The cooperative maintains long-term ties with international coffee organizations and is committed to fair trade and organic cultivation. Villa Rica has become the world's second-largest organic fair-trade coffee-producing region.

• Farms carry out planned seedling replacement during the optimal fruit-bearing years of the trees to maintain high-quality coffee trading.

• The pulp left over from processing and the fermented organic wastewater are effectively used for organic composting, creating a virtuous cycle for cultivation.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing Method:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water temperature: 90°C

Grind size: Small Fuji grind setting 3.5

Brewing method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, using 15g of coffee. First pour 25g of water for a 25-second bloom. Second, pour up to 120g and stop. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g total. Extraction time approximately 2:00.

Analysis: The three-stage method clearly distinguishes the front, middle, and back of the coffee. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains quickly, pausing the pour extends the extraction time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For a clean, sweet washed coffee in the same spirit as this Peruvian lot, FrontStreet Guodingding Cooperative is a fine choice. Washed and roasted medium-light, it shows jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity, with green tea and honey notes and a notably refined, clean finish - good as pour-over, cold brew, or espresso. Want more fruit and less restraint? FrontStreet Kenya Small Tomato delivers concentrated cherry-tomato and smoked-plum acidity with pear, black plum and brown-sugar sweetness, thanks to its 72-hour double washed fermentation.