Heres what Falcon Speciality the importer of this coffee have to say about it.
Efrain Carhuallocllo Salvador owns 4 hectares of land in the El Corazon village in Chirinos district. Efrain is one of the most innovative producers in all of Peru and his farm and wet mill are run with extreme care and precision. Efrain competed in the very first Cup of Excellence competition in Peru and placed 2nd, and many consider his to the be the best coffee of that competition, even though it didn't win. Prior to and since competing in the CoE Efrain has won several local and national competitions and is most likely the most decorated producer in Peru. Efrain grows Caturra (yellow and red) and Geisha varieties. His overall production for 2022 was 147QQ (quintales) of washed and naturals.
Once picked Efrain's coffee is rested for 48 hours as cherries. Then it gets depulped and goes in plastic bags for 72 hours to ferment. Following fermentation, it’s been washed, and dried, great care is taken over the drying, making sure the coffee is dried slowly and evenly for better longevity. Efrain is using probes in the drying area to measure temperature and humidity. In the drying area it usually takes around 15 days to dry.
Chirinos
Chirinos is a district in the province of San Ignacio and is one of the most well-known areas for quality coffee in Peru. Chirinos is well connected to nearby cities, with new roads and a thriving town, which serves as a hub for coffee buying and trade. Whilst the coffee landscape in Chirinos is still dominated by middlemen and FTO certifications, there is a growing interest in specialty coffee and some of the biggest cooperatives in the area have been promoting quality for a number of years. However, for those producers that aren’t members of coops, of which there are many, there is still little access to market and little support to invest in their farms and improve quality. There are a number of villages across Chirinos which have ideal growing conditions for coffee, with altitudes above 1700masl, and many producers still have old pure Arabica varieties. We see huge potential for quality improvement in Chirinos, with small changes and investments producers can escape low market prices which rarely cover the cost of production and find a market for their coffee that pays well above the market with quality incentives.
