Peru - Lucía Muñoz (2026)

This is our third year buying coffee from Doña Lucía and her third year selling coffee to Cultivar, our sourcing and export partners in Perú. We were fortunate to visit Lucía for the first time last October to learn from her firsthand.

Lucía has always lived on her farm, located in the mountains just northwest of Jaén, Cajamarca. The property is planted with a mix of good varieties, including bourbon, caturra, pache, and pacamara. Still, there are significant differences from plant to plant - in morphology, in ripening color, and in the flavor of the coffee fruits themselves - leading us to wonder if there is somehow more varietal diversity than was previously understood.

Lucía produces fully washed coffee using an extended anoxic fermentation - that is, fermentation in an environment that is low in ambient oxygen. 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 other crops like lettuce, cabbage, carrots, cilantro, and lúcuma, a native fruit for which her farm is named. Known for being industrious and entrepreneurial, she also buys cheese from her neighbors' surplus 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 big volume 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 Lucía's coffee once again.