Rare & Unique Series : Chinguel Family | Perú

More the Chinguel family and their coffee:

Don Marcelino and his wife Lizana are experienced coffee producers from El Laurel village in the Coipa district within the San Ignacio province in Cajamarca, Northern Peru. Their family grow and process coffee at their farm La Lucuma at around 1750 masl.

Marcelino, Lizana and their two sons Franklin and Jhonner live and work on the farm together, dividing responsibilities between them. They take care of most work that needs to be carried out throughout the year and only hire a few pickers during the harvest season. Don Marcelino is in charge of admin and sales, his wife looks after post-harvest processing and their sons oversee picking and quality control.

Don Chinguel has been growing coffee for most of his life, mounting to over 40 years of experience. Even though he is a seasoned coffee produces he is is always willing to experiment and keen explore new way of thinking and coffee production. They have planted a part of their land with new varieties and have also discovered one that seems to be a unique mutation that appeared on their farm which they called Marshel. They have noticed it to be stronger and more resistant to disease so decided to plant more of it on their land, and it also delivers an excellent cup profile. So much so that in 2019 Lizana and the family won the Cup of Excellence competition with this coffee which put La Lucuma farm firmly on the map of outstanding speciality coffee in Peru. The genetics of the variety aren’t exactly clear. Some sources state that it is a unique mutation of Bourbon while others claim it to be Costa Rica 95. In any case the coffee’s cup profile is truly outstanding and we are very excited to have the Chinguel’s family coffee back on the offer list.

To further enhance the coffee’s stand out flavour profile, this lot was carefully processed as a natural. Once picked the cherries were hand sorted, floated and left to rest for 16 hours before being laid out to slowly dry on raised in a solar dried. The whole drying process takes between 20-30 days and during this time the cherries need to be regularly turned to ensure even drying.

The result is not like anything we tasted from Peru before and really quite delicious. We find a rose water like florals on the nose and forest fruit berries in the cup, with juicy acidity to keep the cup nice and lively with a lingering sweet aftertaste. We hope you enjoy this rare & unique edition too!