House Filter: The Rioja Family | Perú

About the Rioja family & their coffee:

This coffee is a single farm lot that was cultivated and processed by the Rioja family at their 2 hectare farm Perlamayo in the Huabal District. Emma, Elver, Isaac and Severiano are the family members who contributed to this lot. The farm is located at a very high altitude of 1900 masl and is planted with Caturra & Bourbon varieties.

Growing coffee in Peru at this altitude comes with many challenges exacerbated by climate change, with droughts being more frequent. The family works hard to mitigate the risks in various ways, notably by planting shade trees amongst the coffee plants and installing an irrigation system.

We’ve purchased coffee from Isaac Rioja several years ago and absolutely loved it. Sadly we weren’t been able to get hold of it again for the past few seasons, mainly because of logistical issue in Peru. We have hoped that it would come around again and so we are all the more excited to welcome coffee from this family again this season! It’s super drinkable yet very elegant and sophisticated. We get lots of blackcurrant and brown sugar notes supported by a coating syrupy mouthfeel. It’s a delight!

About Falcon Peru:

Background on Peru and Por El Cambio project:

POR EL CAMBIO means FOR CHANGE. The project has been established in Cajamarca, Northern Peru by our importing partner Falcon Coffees in 2019.

As Falcon explain:

In Peru, like some other origins, coffee farmers are sensitive to market changes and often lack basic training and the incentive to produce higher qualities of coffee, as premiums often don’t materialise. For these reasons we decided we needed to change the way we buy coffee in Peru and work directly with producers, allowing us to control and improve upon existing quality and have full financial traceability. Ensuring these two factors would help us to pay higher prices for the coffees and to make sure that producers received a fair price for the coffee they delivered us, above the market price. In order to do this, we set up a warehouse in Jaen and started to buy in parchment directly from producers.

The vision was to work directly with small producers who aren't associated with or able to sell their coffee through local cooperatives. They represent 75% of producers in Northern Peru and are usually based in remote areas with little or no access to training and price premiums adequate to the quality of coffee they are able to produce. This can leave their income often dependant on local aggregators who buy their coffee at farm for cash before selling it on which results in the producers being paid very little and the potential and quality of their coffee being lost.

Falcon's team on the ground in Peru, have established relationships and now work with around 300 small producers who bring their coffee in parchment directly to their warehouse where individual lots are graded, yield calculated and assessed for quality. Producers are then paid on the same day according to a transparent system (based on cup score and yield) and receive premiums well above the local market price. Aside from gaining access to a fair market, producers are also able to receive training on farm management, good harvest and processing practices.