Machu Picchu Monday 10 10 16
Tag Archives: peru
Tbt Old Peru
Machu Picchu Monday 10 03 16
Weekend Coffee Links September 23-25
We’re back in the saddle, and roasting like crazy to catch up on orders. This coming weekend is CoffeeFest Anaheim, which is sure to be an educational & delightful experience. We look forward to connecting with friends and business associates. Meanwhile, here’s some links for your perusal. Enjoy!
According to a new report, making coffee sustainable will cost billions and take decades.
It’s a lot easier said than done, and getting more money to the farmer workers is the hardest part.
The Philippine Coffee Board is working to educate farmers to do their own coffee tasting
Many farmers have never tasted their own coffee properly roasted and prepared. (Perfect Daily Grind)
On Teaching all of the qualities of perfect ripening, and beyond
Learning more about the science of coffee ripeness, and the precise temperatures for fermentation help farmers to produce the finest coffee. (Perfect Daily Grind)
Climate change could make coffee farming no longer viable. (gulp!)
Farmers and locals are saying the climate extremes of the last few years are changing the viability of coffee farming. (NY Times)
US no longer leads in coffee consumption
Hard to believe…
The founder of the Smithsonian was a coffee geek in 1823 & came up with a good way to prepare coffee
Coffee lovers are uniting in Turkey for the 3rd Istanbul Coffee Festival
Turkey is having a coffee festival. (We won’t be there this year.)
Profits for coffee farmers dangerously low
Low profits could spell the end of specialty coffee
Is Peru the Sunset Land of the Sumerians?
Interesting read about a possible Peru-Sumerian connection.
Eating habits have changed a lot since the 1930’s
Monsanto & Bayer Consolidate More Corporate Agriculture
Got seeds?
Real People, Really Good Coffee July/August 2016
The last few months have been a flurry of activity. (So what else is new!) Besides wearing the green coffee importer hat, we’ve been steadily growing our retail, online, and wholesale roasted (and green) coffee business. I do have a couple of unfinished posts that I hope to publish soon.
The green coffee business has slowed over the summer, but we’re diligent in contacting new roasters to see if we can build a friendship, and some interest in the work (and coffee) that we’ve been doing. The direct trade coffee business is challenging in the real world, because although most would love to help the farmers, sometimes the bottom line seems to outweigh those “out of sight, out of mind” families that labor intensively to harvest, ferment, dry, and bag our daily cup.
The competition is ferocious. The large companies own farms, and contract for the cheapest possible price whenever they buy from local growers. In the ever changing commodity coffee market, this often places the value of the farmer on the bottom end.
Our direct trade model requires the farmer to put in a little more quality control, and attention, but allows earnings that are double or more for their efforts.
Paying more though, puts the smaller direct trade coffee importers at an immediate price disadvantage vs. the “big boys.”
Luckily, we do find many roasters that are interested in more than just price. While the idea of a truly sustainable coffee supply chain may never be completely realizable, we’ll never know what the possibilities are unless we make the attempt. We truly appreciate those who see the bigger picture, and support the small family farmers. The Curibamba Coffee Project is changing lives, and every cup makes a difference.
Meanwhile, the roasting part of the coffee business allows for a better profit potential. Here, the most important thing is quality. We recently purchased a Sonofresco Coffee Roaster for use at Farmer’s Markets & Shows. It’s a fun roaster, and produces excellent flavor in the cup. It works via hot air, and results in an amazingly consistent roast every time. Because we can roast live, it’s an attention getter. Most people are surprised to know that we actually went to the farm to buy our coffee. It’s a wonderful story, and we love to share what we learned along the way. Being warmly received makes it all worth while.
We recently had to contact Sonofresco regarding changes to accommodate roasting at high elevation. The response was very fast, and it’s always nice to know that there is someone behind the scenes. It was relatively easy, so we’re ready to roast fresh coffee sea level to Colorado Rockies!
Continue reading Real People, Really Good Coffee July/August 2016
Real People, Really Good Coffee June 2016 Update
June was a busy time in the Coffee World with Coffee Fest Dallas, and World of Coffee in Dublin, Ireland. Check out our link to upcoming coffee events here.
We’ve been spending our time promoting the last of the current crop, and if all goes well, we should have new crop by the end of September. Meanwhile, it’s been a hectic flurry of everything from emails & phone calls, to select mailings and personal visits. All is being done to keep A Little Further South Coffee fresh in the minds of coffee lovers and specialty coffee roasters all over the Southwest. Our first container has been moving, but there’s a lot of work that goes into getting a commitment to buy from new clients. Our coffee is a minuscule amount in the big world of coffee, but it’s also huge amount, when it’s up to one to sell it.
We look back at the last few years of importing and roasting, and how far we’ve come in not only practical experience, but true knowledge of coffee and the many facets that bring these wonderful beans to our table every day.
We’re anxious to get back to Peru, and taste this year’s finest Peruvian coffees. We thank you for all your support as we build long term relationships with growers in an economically fair, and sustainable manner. (As much as we possibly can, it certainly is a daunting task.)
From the Farms
As I write this, workshops are progressing for this years’ Curibamba Coffee Project. More samples will soon be on the way for cupping, and we expect to have the highest quality scores ever. It’s been an impressive run, with cupping scores of just a couple of years ago rarely finishing over 81-82.5, but now there are many lots in the 83-84 range, and some breaking over 85, which is very good indeed.
The last workshops focused on selective harvesting, washing, proper fermentation techniques, and peparation for drying the parchment coffee in solar drying tents.
Here are a few photos from the last workshops:
===
And Now
We’re planning logistics & timing, and staying super busy.
Happy 4th of July! Stay tuned for more news as we receive it!
Machu Picchu Monday 5 31 2021
Traditional Weaving is Revitalizing the Sacred Valley
Returning to traditional weaving is helping families in Peru’s Sacred Valley. We’ve visited the market at Pisac, and the textiles there are outstanding. A good value for the traveler fortunate enough to discover them. New article in the Guardian:
Ccaccaccollo village’s weaving market is perched on an emerald-green Andean mountainside, looking out across Peru’s Sacred Valley. Inside a straw-roofed hut, two women sit at wooden looms working the foot treadles, transforming the frames into thrusting locomotives. Pumpkin-orange and white fibres intertwine as the shafts shift up and down – clack-clack, clack-clack, clack-clack.
Next door, bowls bursting with black corn, eucalyptus leaves and pearl white beans line the terracotta shelves. A woman plunges a ball of alpaca fibres into a pot of steaming dye and pulls out the mesh; it drips crimson like the head of a decapitated warrior.
The 60 Quechua women running this market in Ccaccaccollo, 15 miles north-east of Cusco and about 80 east of Macchu Picchu, source Andean materials to dye clothes, from qolle, a shrunken cauliflower-looking plant, to cochinillas, which are small insects that burrow into cacti.
“Not long ago this was a sad place. We lost our way of life,” Francisca Qquerar Mayta, a spokesperson for the women, tells me. Sacred Inca traditions, which survived the mid-16th century Spanish conquest, disappeared from Ccaccaccollo in the 1990s after a tourism boom caused an economic imbalance in the Sacred Valley.
Most significant was the increase in visitor numbers to Machu Picchu, which surged from about 95,000 a year (including locals) in 1992 to 1.1 million in 2014. Profits rose, too, transforming the region’s capital Cusco into a tourist hub with swanky hotels and expensive restaurants. And while communities close to sacred Inca ruins, like Pisac and Ollantaytambo, also thrived, others were forgotten. Fears over discrimination saw children forced to abandon their indigenous roots, including their native tongue Quechua. Many relocated to tourist locations to become street sellers, or to beg for money.
Full article here: A rebirth of ancient skills revitalises a village in Peru’s Sacred Valley | Travel | The Guardian
Real People, Really Good Coffee March 2016 Update
The Curibamba Coffee Project
We will be promoting Curibamba at the Specialty Coffee Association of America conference where we are exhibiting this April. (Photos!) Curibamba is being sold and enjoyed mainly in the southwest states of Colorado, California, Arizona, Nevada, & New Mexico, but also as far east as Ohio, Kentucky, and Wisconsin.
The first of the Curibamba workshops for the growers will be in late April. After these meetings, we’ll have a better idea what’s happening for this year in regards to what we can do at a A Little Further South to continue the work for the overall community.
This year it appears that we’re going to see an abundant crop, and a return closer to production levels not seen since the coffee rust outbreak in 2012. Recently, we’ve heard news that Brazils production will be lower this year, and perhaps prices will rise from multi-year lows. We’re anxiously watching world markets for some guidance. Continue reading Real People, Really Good Coffee March 2016 Update
Peru: Coffee Production Looks Strong for 2016
We’re hearing anecdotally that Peru’s coffee production is going to be strong this year, maybe even returning to levels not seen since 2011 before the dreaded coffee rust came.
It’s not just coffee though, other export crops are fairing well in Peru:
Peru to double its exports by 2021
According to the Exporters Association (Adex), despite the stagnation experienced in 2015, Peruvian agricultural exporters expect to double exports to USD $10 billion dollars in 2021.
The union’s goal for 2016 is to surpass the USD $6 billion dollars in exports, thus overcoming the USD $5.093 billion dollars and 0.06 percent drop over 2014 achieved in 2015.
According to data from Adex, 85 percent of the non-traditional agricultural exports abroad are of fresh grapes, coffee, asparagus, avocado, quinoa, fresh mangoes, organic bananas, and paprika.
Worldwide, Peru is the number one exporter of asparagus (fresh, frozen and canned), quinoa, and maca; the second biggest exporter of asparagus and artichokes; the third biggest exporter of organic bananas and dried paprika, and the fourth largest exporter of table grapes and paprika powder.” Continue reading Peru: Coffee Production Looks Strong for 2016