Category Archives: Curibamba

Coffee, Curibamba

Real People, Really Good Coffee Update November 2015

November has been a busy month once again, and many good things are happening.

Green coffee sales are on the rise with several new customers & roasted coffee continues to sell well.

The new look website is up and running with an easier to use shopping cart, and a fresh look. If you see anything that doesn’t look or respond right, please let us know.

Dago and Cesar Marin from Chacra D’dago

A Visit from the Farm – Chacra D’dago

We’re pleased to announce that Cesar Marin from Biodynamic Chacra D’dago will be visiting in February.

He’ll be presenting on biodynamic farming methods and speaking about what’s happening for harvest 2016. Locations and a schedule to follow. He will be making presentations in LA, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Mohave County. Anyone interested in either hosting, or attending please drop me an email. Continue reading Real People, Really Good Coffee Update November 2015 →

Coffee, Curibamba

Real People, Really Good Coffee Update October 2015

October is a month of fall colors & the slowly lengthening days that make a warm cup of coffee a thing of joy. This October was a flurry of activity: roasting, sampling, sending green coffee samples, and behind all of it, a massive website makeover that as always with any tech project, took a lot of time.

We officially launched the company on October 13th, with Grand Opening specials and a burst of new business. We made sales in roasted coffee, and sold quite a bit of green coffee beans in bags (150 lbs.) as well. It was extremely gratifying to see the support, often from places that I hadn’t expected.

Please enjoy the new website look and feel. Thanks for supporting your “local” coffee farmer!

 

Coffee, Curibamba

The Curibamba Project, One Year Later (Reposted)

Curibamba Coffee

I’m reposting this from last fall, the harvest begins again soon for this year, it’s so exciting! More details to follow…

This was our second year with the Curibamba Coffee project in Peru. It was gratifying to see the farmers again, to share the pictures of happy customers, and most of all to cup this years’ crop & see that the quality had increased about a full point score on average for pretty much everyone.

In August, I was interviewed by Terry Slavin of The Guardian newspaper in London. Terry specializes on articles relating to sustainability and projects that help empower farmers and small communities in the developing world. She was interested in the Curibamba Coffee Project & had heard of our work there. Here’s the article:

Cafe Curibamba: Peruvian farmers’ co-op makes better coffee – and better lives

In the cloud forests high in the central Peruvian Andes, a group of local farmers are drying their coffee beans in solar-powered plastic tents instead of the age-old method of drying them on tarpaulin sheets spread out along the roadside, where they can easily be contaminated by insects, pollution from passing cars, and humidity.

Inside a community hall in the town of San Juan de Uchubamba, David Torres Bisetti, a coffee roaster and cafe owner from Lima, is holding a workshop, introducing these farmers to the taste of their own coffee for the very first time, and explaining the finer points of aroma and acidity.

More than a quarter of people in these remote mountain communities are extremely poor but, since 2012, 180 coffee farming families in the Jauja and Concepción areas near to Chanchamayo province in Peru’s central Junín region – known as one of the main places where coffee is produced – have been supported to transform the way they work. After producing coffee in the traditional way for generations, they are joining together to form a co-operative to improve the quality of their product – and with it their life prospects. Continue reading The Curibamba Project, One Year Later (Reposted) →

Coffee, Curibamba

Grand Opening Week

New Website Update

This is it! We’re officially open today, and as this post is written, work is proceeding on the new website look and feel. We are testing, correcting, rereading everything to have a brand new shiny appearance. It’s a ton of work, but we have a talented tech – Joshua of Tolento Group doing the heavy lifting, while I ask for the endless changes that happen at a web launch. Continue reading Grand Opening Week →

Coffee, Curibamba, Peru

Real People, Really Good Coffee Update September 2015

Coffee arrives from the farm

 

Update: 9/22 We’ve passed Customs Exam! We now await pickup by our warehouse, which should be by mid-day today. We’ll next return to Arizona where we’ll be cupping and roasting.

The “buy” buttons will soon be active, and we’ll announce it here when your fresh coffee is ready for purchase. Meanwhile, sign up for our email list in the box on the right.

See this years coffee lineup below.

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Our ship has come in (literally) and we just now await Customs inspection and release. We’re already FDA approved. From there, our coffee will head to the warehouse, and we’ll be heading over to California in order to pick up a few bags so that we can begin roasting and cupping (tasting) again prior to sending out roaster samples to our wholesale customers.

Meanwhile, if it seems a little quiet on the online side of things, it’s because we’re buried in the details of our upcoming “official” launch. Being somewhat of a geek, I maintain the website, do some social media promotion, and coordinate all of our online payment systems etc. It’s a big task on top of selling, roasting, cupping, and all the other “hats” I end up wearing in the coffee business.

We’re also wired from all of the excitement. We went to the farm, bought some amazing coffees, and somehow managed to work our way through the myriad details involved in international shipping. We did it!

Support your “local” coffee farmer!

Click “continue reading” below  (if you are on the home page, and not already reading this full article) to see the latest coffee offerings. Stay tuned for purchasing details which will be announced later this week.
Continue reading Real People, Really Good Coffee Update September 2015 →

Coffee, Curibamba, Import/Export, Peru

Real People, Really Good Coffee, Update August 2015

Update 09/12: The coffee has passed FDA inspection, it should clear Customs in the next few days! 

In this post see the 2015 coffee lineup!

At this writing we’re waiting for the coffee to be loaded into a container & sent to Peruvian Customs. Just a few more hurdles & it should be on it’s way to your cup. (yes!)

The time has flown by, and at last we can look back and realize that we’ve accomplished our goal, which was to find excellent coffee & buy as much as possible direct from the grower. There are only so many things that a class or school can teach about importing coffee. Ultimately, you just have to do it, and roll with the punches as they come.

Continue reading Real People, Really Good Coffee, Update August 2015 →

Coffee, Curibamba, Peru

Real People, Really Good Coffee Update July 2015

Here’s the final 2015 Coffee lineup:

It’s all happening right now! We’ll be traveling back to Villa Rica for the final peeling, cleaning, weighing & rebagging of the coffee for export this week. From there, it’s off to Lima and Customs before shipping to LA.

Curibamba – This is year three of the Curibamba Coffee Project, and we’re seeing wonderful results from the growers. We should end up with about 1,400 pounds. A bright acidity with light fruit & herbal overtones, plus a hint of nuts.

This is the coffee that launched our company – A Little Further South. Your purchase helps support small family farmers as we buy this coffee directly from the producers. More Than Fair Certified.
Continue reading Real People, Really Good Coffee Update July 2015 →

Coffee, Curibamba, Peru, Sustainable Farming

Curibamba Coffee Workshops June 2015

 

This post is about the second in a series of workshops for the growers in the Curibamba Coffee Project held June 27-28. For more info, see below for other links.

Prologue

After our visit to FInca El Dorado (see here,) we continued on to San Ramon. The day was late, and we barely made it before dark. Exhausted after so many days of traveling & all things coffee, we check into a new hostal to see how it will be. It’s priced right, and the internet seems to work, so we may have new digs for our trips to San Ramon. (Hostal Santa Domingo – S/.40 per night about $12.63 at this time.)
Continue reading Curibamba Coffee Workshops June 2015 →

Curibamba, Import/Export, Peru

Tarapoto to Villa Rica – A Long Strange Coffee Trip (Part 2)

 

This is Part 2 (Part 1 here) of our trip from Tarapoto to Villa Rica, and then onto San Ramon (and then to Lima.) In search of specialty coffee, and to participate in the Curibamba Coffee workshops for growers in the communities above San Ramon Peru.
Continue reading Tarapoto to Villa Rica – A Long Strange Coffee Trip (Part 2) →