Eli Espinoza, San Ignacio, Peru | Natural MMY-0205

Eli Espinoza has been working in the world of coffee for more than 15 years, and has spent 4 years working with specialty coffees. He, his wife and his three children live on the farm and do most of the work together; they only hire staff during harvest. Don Eli managed to position himself in 8th place in the cup of excellence in 2020 with his natural coffee. The coffee growing areas of San Ignacio are different from most of the coffee areas in Jaen and Chontali, in that the climate is much cooler and drier and there is are different varieties found here which aren’t found in other districts. This variety has very light bronze buds that are fairly uncommon, the cherries cluster like a bourbon and the beans are very small and round. Elvis owns 2ha of land planted with caturra and this bourbon-like variety. The farm sits at an altitude of 1800masl. Eli and his family carry out most of the picking themselves, but hire additional help during the peak days of the harvest. Eli ferments his coffee for 36 to 48 hours, since the climate is quite cool, before drying on tarpaulin mats in the sun for 10 to 15 days.