Today in Real People, Really Good Coffee we take a look at the scenes behind one of our micro lots of Specialty coffee. Urbano Taipe, Fundo Santa Maria.
Urbano is committed to producing high quality coffee & we’re pleased to be able to bring some to you…
Fundo Santa Maria
In the mountain community of Los Angeles Eden, in Mazamari, Satipo Peru is the Fundo Santa Maria where Urbano & his family produce specialty coffee. It’s a high altitude coffee area at 1,800 m (5,900 ft) and the coffee grows a rich, dense bean.
The coffee rust has not yet affected this farm, like so many others.
We arrive with Nilda Huari who is from a project that has been working with the growers in Mazamari to improve their coffee & cocoa quality. Both efforts are having results & the coffee that we’re buying today has cupped well in the lab. We arrive and meet Urbano & his son.
Urbano has been in the coffee business for the better part of his life. First he worked in Villa Rica with Highland Coffee (who we’re using for processing,) and off on his own for many years now. He’s proud of his coffee, his home town & takes care with his coffee. One can sense the excitement in his voice, the passion as each year, each careful tweaking of the harvest process is yielding yet higher quality brew.
Urbano grows a variety of coffees to help maintain diversity, and to also provide “insurance” if the dreaded coffee rust does ever arrive. Among them are Pache, Bourbon, red & yellow Caturra, Catimor and all are tended carefully at every step.
Ripe coffee cherries are carefully picked, selected, pulped and fermented, then washed and finally dried in a very effective solar drying system:
The coffee is carefully dried, not only off of the ground, but well aerated and evenly. The coffee is moved regularly and rests upon fish netting which allows for a free flow of air and aids the proper and complete drying throughout the whole process.
We take a few humidity samples, and everything looks good, so we begin the tedious process of weighing, noting the weight, and stacking the weighed bags.
Next we transfer the coffee to our “double” bags. We use Grainpro to preserve freshness, and then these bags go inside a burlap sack.
The business gets done, and we have a chance to relax a bit, so we take some pictures, and ask about the coffee & how things have been going. Urbano tells us that he recently won “Best Aroma” for this coffee at the 4th Annual Orange Festival. (Our cupping notes supported this award!)
We spend some time trying to find reasonable transport for the coffee to Villa Rica, where this micro lot will be united with our Curibamba, Finca El Dorado & Chacra D’dago coffees. After making arrangements, we’re back on the road to San Ramon pleased with another tasty coffee for this year.
But first we stop in town for one last look…
Mazamari
Coffee Fundo Santa Maria
We’re happy to be shipping a micro lot of this excellent coffee. Hints of nuttiness & a bright citrus acidity, you’ll love it! Reserve early, there are only 9 bags…
©2015 Ben Gangloff
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