Peru La Florida | Washed Typica and Caturra Coffee from Chanchamayo Region

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Peru La Florida | Flavor Profile of Washed Typica and Caturra Coffee Beans from the Chanchamayo Region

Peru's coffee production is predominantly composed of small-scale farmers, with each small farmer owning less than two hectares of land, producing approximately 3,000 pounds of coffee per hectare. Organic cultivation has a very long and quite common history in Peru, mainly because farmers here lack the opportunity or capital to invest in chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. However, in recent years, climate change has led to the successive spread of coffee leaf rust across various countries. Due to organic cultivation methods, this has also caused significant production reductions in Peruvian coffee. Peruvian coffee is cultivated in high-altitude areas, primarily with Arabica varieties. Under gradual maturation conditions, the beans here have higher density and quite diverse flavor profiles. Among these, the highest altitude and most important coffee-producing region in Peru is Chanchamayo, located in the central highlands on the eastern side of the Andes Mountains. This is followed by Amazon and San Martín, situated in the northern highlands on the eastern side of the Andes.

Peruvian coffee beans are produced in La Florida, located in the northeastern highlands of the Andes Mountains. This area is situated in the most famous of Peru's nine coffee-producing regions: Chanchamayo, which belongs to high-altitude rainforest areas. The coffee plantations here are situated at elevations between 1,200-1,400 meters, with an average annual temperature of 17-30°C and annual rainfall of 1,500-2,000 millimeters, making it an excellent place for coffee cultivation.

In fact, La Florida is a cooperative established in 1965, initially composed of 100 farmers. It has now grown to include nearly 1,200 farmers, with almost each family cultivating only 2-3 hectares of coffee land. In their coffee plantations, only natural fertilizers are used without synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. This cooperative has its own technical team, small loan institutions for housewives to maintain household expenses, small medical clinics, and has also established funds to purchase coffee processing machinery for the cooperative.

Peruvian coffee beans are entirely manually cultivated and harvested. After harvesting ripe coffee cherries, the pulp and fruit flesh are removed, followed by water washing and fermentation. After fermentation is complete, natural sun-drying methods are employed to prevent the beans from acquiring earthy flavors and other impurities. Its sweet and sour taste is remarkably clean with minimal off-flavors. For South American beans, the quality is quite excellent.

Cultural Heritage and Regional Specialties

The main coffee cultivation areas within Peru are primarily located in the central Chanchamayo region, where the two most famous cultivation areas are Villa Rica and La Merced. The cultivation is dominated by Typica Arabica varieties. Peru's coffee cultivation history can be traced back to 1930, when a group of German immigrants settled in what is now the Villa Rica area and initiated coffee cultivation economic activities. This also brought new cultural injection to the region, developing special new humanistic characteristics of the area. To commemorate these new residents from afar, June 26th of each year was designated as "Settler's Day." Today, many coffee farmers in the local area are descendants of these immigrants, passing down from generation to generation to continue operating these precious coffee estates!

Villa Rica is a prosperous and busy small town in the eastern Andes Mountains. It possesses large areas of rich ecological conservation forests and is also a well-known bird protection area. Surprisingly, 400 species of birds have been recorded in Villa Rica! This demonstrates that Villa Rica is a coffee-producing region extremely friendly to the natural environment—coffee cultivation altitude is approximately 1,500m, average annual temperature is 20°C, annual rainfall is about 1,800 millimeters, with excellent cultivation conditions, very suitable for coffee tree growth! Farmers adopt organic compost cultivation methods, with Typica as the main variety. The green bean quality is extremely stable. Harvesting season begins in April and continues through September. After harvesting, the green beans undergo water washing fermentation and natural sun drying. Coffee produced in the Villa Rica region possesses special creamy nutty aromas, with a warm, thick, and smooth mouthfeel, excellent sweetness, and a slightly rising fruit acidity in the finish that brings a comfortable aftertaste.

Cultivation and Processing Excellence

Peru began cultivating Arabica coffee in the 18th century, with all processing using water washing methods, primarily exported to the United States and Germany. Because cultivation occurs in forest areas under natural conditions, and almost no pesticides are used locally, Peru is currently the third-largest exporter in South America and the ninth-largest coffee exporter in the world. Chanchamayo coffee (Peru SHB Chanchamayo) is located in central Peru, and its producing region is one of Peru's main producing areas. Coffee is cultivated on mountains above 1,300 meters. The bean appearance color somewhat resembles semi-sun-dried color, which is its characteristic feature. The flavor is mild with slight acidity. Starbucks/Starbucks has special sales of this coffee bean variety.

Organic Cultivation Methods

Pure organic cultivation: No synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are applied. Only forest fallen leaves mixed with coffee cherry-separated pulp and fruit flesh fermented to make organic fertilizers are used. This most meets environmental protection cultivation and is beneficial to human health.

Shade cultivation: All cultivation occurs under large trees in rainforests, without land preparation, completely planted according to the terrain. This most meets water and soil conservation and natural ecological cultivation, different from the cultivation method of completely cutting down or preparing rainforest land, like planting citrus orchards.

Harvesting method: The most labor-intensive method is adopted, but only fully mature, plump fruits are selectively picked, with harvesting intervals of 5-7 days. Harvesting continues from May to October. This differs from harvesting all fruits at once regardless of whether they are fully mature.

Green bean production: The most labor-intensive and time-consuming "pure water washing" method is used, with natural fermentation without artificial fermentation agents. Fresh fruits harvested on the same day have seeds separated by pulp and fruit flesh removal machines, and clean mountain spring water is introduced. After 24-36 hours of fermentation, they are finally washed multiple times with mountain spring water. Completely processed parchment seeds are transported to drying fields for rapid drying (just during the dry season without rain) for storage or sales. The coffee drying method is almost identical to Taiwan's early rice drying methods.

Green bean completion: Usually to maintain optimal quality, during storage, dried seeds with parchment and membrane retained (humidity around 11%) are loaded into gunny sacks. When sold, the parchment is removed by machine, then manually sorted to remove poor-quality green beans and impurities, before being reloaded into gunny sacks and transported to destinations to maintain optimal quality.

Varieties and Characteristics

Varieties: Typica (red fruit) 80%, Caturra (yellow fruit) 20%

• A fruit tree called "INGA" is widely planted in the cultivation area, locally known as Pacay. Besides providing good shade, it also provides food for birds during flowering and fruiting seasons.
• Small farmers organize production cooperatives, completely weaving green bean sales mechanisms.
• Almost every farm has complete green bean processing equipment to facilitate optimal processing timing after coffee cherry harvesting.
• The cooperative provides refined grading and screening, with coffee green beans completely bagged and directly exported to buyers from various countries, effectively securing green bean storage time and avoiding improper storage environments that could damage green bean quality after centralized transport to the capital Lima's port.
• The cooperative maintains long-term connections with international coffee organizations, dedicated to implementing fair trade and organic cultivation. Currently, Villa Rica is the world's second-largest producing area for organic fair trade coffee.
• Farms implement planned seedling cultivation and replacement during coffee trees' optimal fruit-bearing years to maintain high-quality coffee trading.
• Effective utilization of remaining pulp and fermented organic wastewater from coffee cherry processing for organic composting creates a virtuous cycle for cultivation.

Regional Profile and Brewing Recommendations

Region: Chanchamayo

Processing method: Water washing

Altitude: 1,350M

Flavor: Gentle citrus acidity, chocolate, smooth, clean aftertaste, drupe fruits, good balance.

Recommended Brewing Method:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water temperature: 90°C

Grind size: Fuji Royal R440 grinder setting 3.5

Brewing technique: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g coffee grounds. First infusion with 25g water for 25s bloom. Second infusion to 120g water, then pause. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, then continue pouring water. Slowly pour water until reaching 225g total. Extraction time approximately 2:00.

Analysis: Using three-stage brewing to clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back flavor profiles of the coffee. Because V60 has many ribs and faster drainage speed, pausing during pouring can extend extraction time.

Important Notice :

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