Peru Isabel Correa

Isabel Correa Paz owns La Mandarina, a 6 hectare farm with 5 hectares of coffee planted primarily with Caturra and Pache varieties but some others mixed in as well.

Coffee is picked ripe and depulped either the same day or the following day after the harvest. The cherries are fermented for 24 hours dry, then washed clean of mucilage three times. The coffee dries for 12–18 days on raised beds under a cover of shade.

The pandemic in 2020 has had it’s challenges. While many farmers in Cajamarca rely on pickers who come from other parts of the country to harvest coffee, this year there was a ban on interdepartmental travel, which meant that farmers needed to rely on themselves and their families to collect the coffee. For some, that meant spending large amounts of time in their own fields for the first time in a while, allowing them to pay close attention to ripeness and selectivity, to take extra care of the plants, and to feel better organized with their crops.

The weather mercifully cooperated with the coffee harvest, which should translate to fantastic coffees in the cup.