As a coffee origin, Peru often gets sidelined by Central American neighbours Brazil and Colombia in the collective consciousness of coffee enthusiasts. This is understandable, being mostly a matter of scale rather than standard. In the 2023/2024 business year, Brazil accounted for 39% of global coffee production, and Colombia for 7%, while Peru accounted for a mere 2%. This spread has been pretty consistent over the last 10 years, and is largely a result of Peru significantly lacking important infrastructure required for high-volume coffee production as a whole, let alone in the specialty space.

Fortunately, despite the significant obstacles faced by Peruvian coffee farmers, more and more specialty Peruvian coffee lots have been making their way to the wider world. This is thanks to the hard work of Peruvian coffee farmers and cooperatives, government interventions and incentives, and conscious coffee importers like Falcon, from whom Cedar received this particular lot. 

Falcon’s declared mission is to “build collaborative supply chains for mutual profit and positive social and environmental outcomes.” Its Peruvian arm operates mostly in the Northern region of Cajamarca, where it works with 275 farmers across 15 districts, including Nelber Arevalo and his family farm. 

Bordered by both the Andes mountain range and the Amazon rainforest, Cajamarca features the sort of climates, altitudes and soils that Arabica coffee plants can thrive in, and comes up consistently in Peru’s Cup of Excellence contests. We’re especially excited to try this particular coffee because it’s Cedar’s first ever Peruvian offering!

Cedar’s notes

“This coffee gave us hints of tropical notes on the nose, but on filter we picked up a winey red grape… [and] this green apple acidity. The green apple flavour was also prevalent in our espresso. Think of the taste of the flesh without the skin. The milk profile felt quite light with subtle notes of a very pleasant light caramel.”

• Cup profile: Winey red grape, green apple, light caramel with milk

Coffee details from Cedar

“Another new country to explore: we bring you our first ever coffee from Peru. This country has been gaining quite the reputation [due to its] consistent quality throughout the years. A particular region worth exploring is Huabel, an area with huge potential but poor infrastructure at this moment.”

“[This lot comes from] a little farm of approximately 1 hectare of land run by Nelber Arevalo and his family. [This is a] single farm estate [which grows] Caturra and Typica. The climate conditions and soils [of Huabel] can vary considerably, with some areas having wet, humid conditions with red, African-like soils, and others dry and hot.”

“[This] coffee [was] fermented for 24 to 36 hours before washing. [It was then dried] on a lined patio for 14 days. This all contributes to a diverse and complex cup profile.”

• Producer: Nelber Arevalo Heredia
• Country: Peru
• Region: Huabal, Cajamarca
• Process: Natural
• Altitude: 1850 - 1900masl
• Variety: Caturra