ESPRESSO | PERU PENACHI

TASTE NOTES: Grapefruit . Manuka Honey . 80% Dark Chocolate

ORIGIN: Peru

FARM: Comité Penachi Monteverde

LOCATION: Chiliquin

VARIETY: Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra, Typica

PROCESSING: Fully Washed

PRODUCER: Cafe Monteverde

ALTITUDE: 1,400-2,000 m.a.s.l.

Nestled between 1,400 and 2,000 meters above sea level in the Chiliquin subregion of Amazonas, the farms of Comité Penachi sit within one of Peru's most biodiverse and fertile coffee-growing landscapes. Spread across 800 hectares of smallholder plots, the land is sheltered beneath diverse shade trees and living barriers, not just protection for the coffee, but part of an active commitment to regenerative agriculture, with contour lines planted to hold the hillside and restore what the land gives back.

Since Alfonso Tejada Ibérico and Karim Araoz established Café Monteverde, built around the family farm Finca Timbuyacu, passed down through three generations the 250 producers of this region have had both a compass and a community. Fair access to markets, hands-on training in farm management and post-harvest technique, and the kind of collective investment that changes lives: a playground for a producer community in 2010, mattresses for children in 2014. The premiums earned flow back into the farms and the families, with the next generation growing up immersed in the craft.

At harvest, each producer selectively handpicks only ripe cherry from their own plots. The cherries are pulped by hand or motorised pulper then fermented for 18 to 24 hours in polyethylene crates before being thoroughly washed with clean water to remove all remaining mucilage. The parchment is then dried evenly over 18 to 24 days until optimal moisture is reached, a patient process that allows the coffee's natural character to fully develop before it is assessed and milled at Monteverde's collection center.

In the cup, the result is vivid and generous: expect juicy grapefruit and the rounded sweetness of Manuka honey, layered with smooth 80% dark chocolate. Brewed as a filter, it opens with clarity and carries through with a long, sweet finish: a coffee shaped as much by the land as by the people who tend it.