Artisan Roast: Peru, La Naranja, Washed

The stunning, soaring peaks of Northern Peru seem to go on endlessly into the high Andean cordillera. Across thousands of these lush green slopes and ridges are small, family orientated coffee producers, blessed with perfect growing conditions and traditional cultivars, yet often unable to gain the visibility that their coffee so richly deserves. Times are changing, and despite continued long journey times producers like Susana Hurtado Inga are now getting opportunities to sell their coffee as micro-lots.

Susana’s small 1.5-hectare farm sits high in the cool mountains of the San Jose de Lourdes district of San Ignacio. Wider San Ignacio has been long famed for producing delicious coffee and a distinct, humid and cool microclimate in San Jose de Lourdes has helped preserve the sweetness in the coffee as it dried and created a coffee very different from others in neighbouring parts of the province.

A silky, butterscotch sweetness and a dense toffee like character is a primary feature of Susanna’s coffee. This melds effortlessly with complimentary flavours of candied mandarin orange, pomegranate and milk chocolate along with undertones of blanched almond. With a supporting silky texture to the mouthfeel La Naranja is a moreish coffee that works across a whole range of brewers. We prefer it most as a filter or immersion brew like French press or aeropress where the finesse and subtlety can be lingered over.