Peru Amazonas Single Origin Coffee

Roast: Medium  |  Region: Amazonas, Peru  |  Altitude: 1,600–1,800m
Cup: Medium acidity, smooth body, lemon, herbal, chocolate

In 2003, thirty-five small farmers in the Amazonian Andes of northern Peru started a cooperative. It's now the Asociación de Productores Cafetaleros Juan Marco El Palto — El Palto for short — with 189 members farming roughly 550 hectares.

Forty of those members are women, and they sit on the board of directors alongside the men, which is less common in coffee than it should be. The cooperative's stated mission is unglamorous and exactly right: increase production and profitability in specialty coffee so that each member family earns more.

The coffee is Grade 1, SHG, EP — strictly high grown, European preparation, which means it's been sorted hard for defects. Washed process, from Typica, Castillo, Bourbon and Catimor. It cups clean and bright: lemon and herbal notes over a chocolate base, with the smoothness that altitude in the Andes reliably produces.

Brew it: pour-over or drip. Standard grind. It's clean enough that a paper filter suits it.

Pairs with: nonfiction, and the sort of reading you take notes on.