Peru Light Roast - Qhapaq Ñan

Flavor Profile: Nutty and tea-like with pistachio, apple tea, and candied walnuts.
Origin: Guiber Huancas Peña, Cajamarca, Peru
Roast Level: Light
Elevation: 1,700-1,800 meters
Cultivar: Caturra
Process: Washed

A Journey Along the Qhapaq Ñan

This is a microlot from producer Guiber Huancas Peña in Cajamarca, and it drinks like one. Pistachio and candied walnut give it a rich nuttiness up front, and an apple tea quality runs through the whole cup, keeping things bright and drinkable. The Caturra cultivar at 1,750 meters produces a dense bean, and the washed process lets those flavors come through without any noise in the way.

The Qhapaq Ñan was the main road system of the Inca Empire, stretching over 30,000 kilometers through six modern countries along the Andes. It connected communities at extreme elevations and made trade, communication, and agriculture possible across some of the most difficult terrain on the continent. Cajamarca was one of the key cities along the northern route. The coffee-growing regions there sit at the kind of altitude the Inca road was built to reach.

Meet the Producer | Current Harvest

This microlot comes from the farm of Guiber Huancas Peña in the Chirinos district of Cajamarca. His farm is part of the PAWQARA cooperative, a group of small-scale growers focused on quality production in the Andes. Journey Coffee Roasters purchased the full harvest of this microlot.

Brewing suggestions: Pour over brings out the apple tea and lets the pistachio note sit in the background. A longer V60 brew will push the candied walnut sweetness forward.