Washed: 250 / 350g, 16.00 / 22.40 CHF (2.5% VAT included) Honey: 250 / 350g, 17.50 / 24.50 CHF (2.5% VAT included) (SOLD OUT!)
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Region: San Nicolas, Rodriguez de Mendoza, Amazonas
Altitude: 1500m-1900m
Variety: Tipica, caturra, bourbon, catuai, pache, maragogype, catimor
Process: Washed and Honey
We met Tobias Joos the founder of Crowd Container by chance in the kitchen area of the Impact Hub in Zürich. We started having a conversation about their interesting project with CAFHU cooperative in Peru. We said we wanted to try his coffee as it seems a project aligned with what we are looking for. However he asked several questions about us, I sensed he wanted to find out what kind of motivation we had. Finally he agreed to send us samples, we liked it with its apricot notes, and went to Basel warehouse to load 3 bags of coffee in our car!
The cooperative CAFHU (Cooperativa Agraria y Forestal del Alto Valle de Huayabamba) has 20 smallholder members. Their farms are all located in Rodriguez de Mendoza in the district “Amazonas“ of Peru at 1500-1900 m.a.s.l. They grow coffee in agroforestry systems following principles of organic agriculture. Big trees give shade to the coffee plants, prevent erosion and play an important role in the nutrient cycle of the coffee plantations. The cooperative grows different varietals of arabica coffee (tipica, caturra, bourbon, catuai, pache, maragogype, catimor and some more).
The standard processing is to wash the coffee on farm and dry milling it in a larger unit in Mendoza or in Bagua Grande. However, they plan to build their own small dry mill to process single producer nano lots. They also experiment with different processes such as natural, honey or anaerobic fermentation and the first results are very promising.
Washed and Honey are related to the processing methods. Coffee is a drupe, a fleshy fruit with a hard seed inside, actually two seeds for each fruit. Other drupes are cherries, peaches, apricots, almonds, olives… Often the coffee drupe is called “coffee cherry”, and the seeds are THE COFFEE.
In order to get rid of the fruit and arrive to the dry seeds (the coffee), there is some processing involved, with different methods available.
Washed or Wet method. The coffee fruits are mechanically depulped using some water a few hours after picking. The coffee is left with its mucilage and put into water tanks for fermentation (from a few hours to a couple of days). After the fermentation, mucilage is easily removed. Fermentation allows sugars and amino acids exchange with the coffee seed, creating a high quality clean tasting coffee. After mucilage is removed the coffee is left to dry and then it’s ready to be used for roasting.
Many high quality specialty coffees are washed and appreciated for their clean taste and subtle nuances.
Honey method. The coffee fruits are mechanically depulped, as in the washed method. The difference is that the coffee with its mucilage is put in drying areas and turned constantly to allow aeration until dry. Finally the left external layers are removed from the coffee and it’s ready to be roaster.
Because of the process this method can allow sweeter cups with interesting nuances.
Images courtesy of Crowd Container.
We can send you coffee via Swiss Post to Switzerland for 8CHF up to 2kg total weight.
For any question, please feel free to leave a comment here below or