Peru - Lucía Muñoz (2025)

This is our second year buying coffee from Doña Lucía and her second year selling coffee to Cultivar, our sourcing and export partners in Perú. 

Lucía has always lived on her farm, which is just northwest of the town of Jaén, Cajamarca. The area of the farm under cultivation with coffee is planted with caturra, bourbon, and pache, high quality varieties known to perform well in Perú.

Lucía produces fully washed coffee using an extended anoxic fermentation. She begins by sealing intact coffee fruits in clean plastic bags and allowing them to ferment in a shaded location for 72 hours. She then depulps the coffee and seals it again, continuing fermentation with the mucilage exposed for another 48 hours. Once the second stage is complete, she washes the coffee in clean tanks and moves the parchment to solar dryers where it dries for approximately 12 days. 

In addition to coffee, Lucía also grows crops like lettuce, cabbage, carrots, cilantro, and lúcuma, a native fruit for which her farm is named. She reserves enough of these products for her family and sells the rest at the market in Jaén. Known to be industrious and entrepreneurial, she also buys cheese from her neighbors' surplus dairy production to sell along with her produce. 

Since the 1980s cooperative style production has become very popular in Perú, establishing the country as a clear and logical choice for organic coffees in particular. But while certified coffees have offered producers slightly better insulation against lows in the coffee market, they have historically reinforced a style of production that emphasizes generic volume over quality or specificity. Today we're excited to witness a growing interest in traceable, differentiated coffees aided by quality-oriented companies like Cultivar.

We're excited to offer this lovely coffee once again.