Esmérita Vásquez Ramírez (Perú)

This beautifully bold cup was grown in Cajamarca, Perú's northern region. Tasting notes of strawberry, limeade, and butterscotch mesh with a pronounced acidity that ensures satisfactory sipping.

I have quite an appreciation for coffees from the staggering landscapes of the Peruvian Andes. I am grateful to continue working with the folks at Yellow Rooster Coffee, who share this appreciation and connected me to this wonderful coffee. This single producer lot comes from Finca La Esperanza, located at 1,900 masl (meters above sea level) and two hours north of the nearest city of Jaén. It’s a small, two-person operation owned and run by Esmérita and her husband. Since the time-consuming labor of harvesting is difficult to accomplish on a rapid timeline, their picked cherries cannot be sent for pulping the same day. Instead, they sit in GrainPro hermetic bags for a few days before processing. This pause allows the coffee to undergo a brief fermentation period in the bags (12 hours in-cherry plus another 36 hours after pulping) that closely mimics an anaerobic processing style. After washing the pulped coffee cherries, they are dried on raised beds for 20-25 days.