Peru - La Galleta

CUP PROFILE: Vibrant 

Fruitful and complex; this coffee produces a dynamic cup, combining lively fruit qualities with more delicate floral and/or tea-like flavors.

In The Cup: 

This washed processed lot from Amazonas, Peru yields a vibrant cup with a velvet mouthfeel; expect lively notes of Toffee, Red Berries and Hibiscus Tea.

Fidel Benavides Guevara grows coffee in Beirut, a small coffee producing community in the Amazon’s region of Peru. Beirut is in the heart of the Alto Mayo Protected Forest, and as a facet of this, Fidel and his neighbors place conservation and environmental sustainability at the center of their work and life.

On his 2 - hectare farm, Fidel produces Catarrh, Bourbon and Catimor varieties in synergy with native trees such as the leguminous ice cream bean trees and Alicia, as well as an abundance of local flora and fauna. Fidel ferments his coffee in plastic tanks for 85 hours depending on weather, then dries in parabolic dryers 17 days, also depending on climate. After the coffee is processed, the bags of parchment are carried out to the nearest road where the truck picks them up and takes them to the main collection center.

The name of his farm is La Galena (Spanish for “cookie”). Fidel gave it this name because during his childhood, all he ate everyday before going to work in the fields was a small package of cookies, due to his parents’ financial difficulties.

La Galleta is set at an impressive altitude of 1946 mass where, aside from phenomenal coffee, the topically humid weather invites a cast orchid bloom each year.

He bought his first 2 hectares in one of the highest areas of Beirut. Since then, he has worked every day on his farm with his family. Fidel’s main goals are to provide a better education for his children and to open his own coffee shop.