Crown Jewel Peru Farmgate Mendosayoc Ermitaño Huillca Quispe Raised Bed Washed CJ1513 – 29802 – SPOT RCWHSE

Taste

Taste Analysis by Chris Kornman 

Breaking the mold of stereotypical Peruvian coffees, this microlot from producer Ermitaño Huillca highlights uncommonly recognized terroir, excellence in husbandry and processing, and sheer determination to get good coffee out into the world. 

Ermitaño has produced a decadently sweet, full bodied coffee with strong notes of peach, raspberry and toffee, and some lilting citrusy acids reminding us of lime and orange. Its unique character suggests the attention to detail of the producer, the micro-scale of processing, and the rarely recognized Cusco region in specialty growing circles. We’re thrilled and in some ways lucky to have this small representation of the larger efforts of the emergent producer group Café Orígenes. 

Throughout the analysis our team found that this coffee was almost effortless to work with, between great roasting and easy dials on pour-overs… but it’s as an espresso that this coffee will put in the work on bar here at The Crown. MJ’s trial shots offer some insights: the coffee feels traditional in some ways: hefty body with a chocolatey baseline, but offers some sweet, juicy berry notes that we rarely taste in Peruvian coffees. We can’t wait to share it with you. 

Source

Source Analysis by Chris Kornman & Charlie Habegger 

In the past few years we’ve released a healthy amount of Peruvian coffee in our Crown Jewel lineup almost exclusively from the north of the country, mostly within the Cajamarca department. This coffee, however, is from over 1,000 miles to the South, a reminder that Peru is a massive country, with a Pacific coastline longer than that of the contiguous United States. 

Last April at the SCA Expo in Boston, Chris met Luke Agnes who spoke a little about a startup coffee organization in Cusco. Luke had been working with a small NGO team to improve agricultural health in the region, and identified a group of coffee producers who they felt lacked access to differentiated markets who would recognize the quality of the work they’d been doing. Chris asked for samples, found the coffees interesting enough to pursue, and began working with Luke to identify microlots and larger blended coffees that could work as part of a consolidated container. 

In conversation, Luke revealed that he’d consulted with Edith Meza of Finca Tasta, one of our existing supply partners, which gave us the confidence boost we needed to ink a deal with this emergent association, whose experience navigating milling and exporting were somewhat limited. Between back and forth emails, WhatsApp messages, and zoom meetings between Luke, Chris, and Royal coffee trader Lauren Cropper, plus with the help of Edith, we assembled a container and waited for it to arrive. 

It’s extremely rare that a new, exploratory sourcing relationship works out to purchase as much coffee as we did with Café Origenes, much less to secure a spot on our top shelf product line. But here we are, with an excellent microlot from one of the farmer members of a brand-new coffee supply partner, and we’re thrilled to share it with the world. 

In Peru the bulk of coffee production comes from small farms owned and managed by people who follow organic farm management practices attuned to their cultural connection with the land. Producers typically cultivate coffee on just a few acres of land intercropped with shade trees, bananas, corn, and beans. They carefully harvest and sort cherries before depulping, fermenting, washing, and drying the coffee using their own micro-mills. While producers design farm management and post-harvest solutions to fit their needs, they also need a strong alliance to bring their coffee to the international market and earn fair prices. 

Ermitaño Huillca Quispe’s farm is 1.5 hectares in size and located in the Mendosayoc community, part of the Yanatile valley north of Cusco city. The vast majority of Ermitaño’s coffee is Typica, which, even in Peru, one of the Americas’ last bastions of the variety, is quite rare to find. In addition to coffee Ermitaño also grows citrus fruits, cherimoya, and granadilla (a species of passionfruit). As a small farmer, Ermitaño manages all aspects of processing himself, depulping, fermenting, and drying on shaded raised beds on his own property. 

Ermitaño is a member of a newly-formed regional association called Café Orígenes. Café Orígenes is in its second year of business exporting coffee from the Yanatile region of southern Peru. After recognizing that producers in Peru’s Lacco Valley, part of historic the Yanatile/Cusco producing zone, were outnumbered by predatory local buyers and with no direct market access, the founders solicited the help of a local NGO, Andean Alliance for Sustainable Development (AASD). With financial and legislative support of AASD, along with coffee farmers from the area, Café Orígenes was created. In addition to marketing and exportation Café Orígenes also invests in farmer soil fertility and farm resistance to disease, conducts quality control and lot building to maximize differentiation for farmers, and offers full price transparency to their buyers. 100% of profits are re-invested in the organization to expand access of their services to farmers. Including post-harvest quality premiums, Ermitaño was paid an average equivalent price of $2.79 per pound of green exportable coffee. 

Green

Green Analysis by Chris Kornman 

Alongside the thrill of newfound relationships like Café Origenes, and newly recognized coffee producers like Ermitaño Huillca Quispe, comes the anticipation and anxiety about preparation. When I first spoke to Luke about sampling the coffees, the idea of a fully milled preshipment sample wasn’t even something he’d considered. Fortunately, we took it slow and the results turned out excellent. 

Ermitaño is growing majority Typica trees, Peru (and the world’s) first commercially cultivated legacy tree type. Introduced relatively early to Peru in the 18th century, the country didn’t begin producing at scale until more than a hundred years after its arrival. Predominately Typica trees were gradually replaced by Bourbons and eventually Catimors. Ermitaño has a few of the latter on his farm, to help hedge against disease and climate change.  

The coffee has been sorted to mostly 16-18 screens, on the slightly larger side, and exhibits the slightly oblong shape associated with the Typica plant. The coffee is relatively high in density and nicely balanced in moisture, and should prove easy to store and roast as a result. 

Loring S15

Loring S15 Falcon Analysis by Doris Garrido  

This fully washed Peruvian coffee from Ermitano Huilca Quispe will be available to taste at the Crown starting this weekend on the espresso bar, and for this analysis I went directly with the production roast I did for the bar. This was an 18 lb. batch on the Loring S15 Falcon. I have done a few roasts now, with my second roast being the chosen profile. 

I built on what I did on the first roast, just improving the curve to showcase its acidity. On the first stage of roasting, I started at 451.7F with 80% gas for a few seconds, then 100% for about 3 minutes. I was looking to shorten the drying time to have more space to work on the next phase, Maillard. 

I spent 45.76% of the roast in Maillard, starting to lower gas as soon as I marked color change and trying to maintain the rate of rise by lowering gas little by little, hitting the first crack at 13F/minute (RoR) in exactly 8 minutes, at 394.4F. 

Slightly before the first crack on my first roast, the temperature was starting to pick up. Not dramatically, but for my second roast I started lowering my gas to catch that area being able to control it better. I spent 1:26 on post-crack development and dropped the coffee at 401.5F.  

On the cupping table, I got a balance of citric acidity, mandarins, nectarine, Meyer lemon, stone fruit, apricot, the smooth sweetness of cane sugar, and a silky body.  

Aillio Bullet R1

Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Evan Gilman 

Unless otherwise noted, we use both the roast.world site and Artisan software to document our roasts on the Bullet. You can find our roast documentation below, by searching on roast.world, or by clicking on the Artisan links below.  

Generally, we have good results starting our 500g roasts with 428F preheating, P6 power, F2 fan, and d6 drum speed. Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing! 

Every once in a while, a roast just knocks it out of the park. Such is the case with my first roast of this delicious Peruvian coffee from Sr Huillca in Mendosayoc. The roast put me in such good spirits that I might start referring to this municpality as “the second Mendo.” But I digress. 

The green attributes seemed to be easy to work with, showing a pretty tight screen size distribution, middle-of-the-road moisture content, and high density. I felt I could push this coffee firmly with heat application, so I started with 437F charge temperature, P9 heat application, and F2 fan. I dropped to P8 and F1 at Turning Point, then gave plenty of air with F3 at peak RoR. Just before yellowing, I reduced heat to P7, then to P6 at 345F / 5:25. My only other adjustment was to increase fan speed to F4 at First Crack and just ride the roast out until 400.6F / 10:28. RoR declined smoothly flattening a bit into First Crack, but otherwise on a downward trend. This roast was evenly balanced, with 40% / 40% / 18% (give or take 2%) spent in each stage of roasting.  

The cup was evenly balanced as well, and incredibly quaffable. Tealike body with a pop of lime, plummy juiciness, and a crystalline sweetness like those artificially colored sugar sticks you can get at science fairs. There was something nostalgic here for sure. As it cooled, pearlike sweetness and milk chocolatey body came through in the cup. I could drink cup after cup of this coffee. It’s not the most complex coffee  ever, but it sure is sweet! 

Ikawa Pro v3

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Our current Ikawa practice compares two sample roast profiles, originally designed for different densities of green coffee. The two roasts differ slightly in total length, charge temperature, and time spent between color change in first crack. You can learn more about the profiles here. 

I am largely unfamiliar with Peruvian coffee and have been excited to learn more about producers from this region and their attention to the symbiosis of their farming practices with the land. Not knowing what to expect from this coffee when it first came through our lab I was surprised at the honey like sweetness from this coffee. Initial cupping notes were orange, peach, cacao powder, cooked fruit, lemongrass, oolong, and milk chocolate. A winner all around for the team it had some spiced berry on the aroma and was an enjoyable cup. With the help of Doris and Taylor we can break down what roast compliments this lovely coffee from Ermitaño Huillca Quispe’s farm. 

For the high-density profile, the team got notes of dark berry, lime, orange, pomegranate and rose. I felt it was pretty flat while Taylor enjoyed how nuanced the coffee tasted. The light density roast brought flavors of milk chocolate, banana, lime, orange, chamomile, and baked bread. I felt this cup opened up nicely with a lot of fullness and sweetness. Doris agreed with me on this one siding with the light density roast while Taylor much preferred the high-density roast. This coffee feels reminiscent of my ideal baked good of fruit, a sweet herbal note and of course, chocolate. I think I just got some inspiration for my next baking frenzy… 

You can roast your own by linking to our profiles in the Ikawa Pro app here: 

Roast 1: Low Density Sample Roast 

Roast 2: High Density Sample Roast   

Brew

Brew Analysis by Joshua Wismans

Sometimes, things just work right off the bat. Much like our new partnership with the young organization Café Origines that we received this astounding single farmer lot from, things seemed to just taste great from the get-go. Ermitano’s coffee is bursting with complex sweetness, citrus, stonefruit, and a delicate bitterness reminiscent of black tea and dark chocolate. For our brew analysis, we explored how each brewer brought out different iterations of these tasting notes. 

As I mentioned, for our first brew we really seemed to nail it. Let’s call it barista’s intuition. Raspberry, lime, and orange melded with toffee and chocolate to produce a juicy, sweet cup that balanced a complex aftertaste of lemon verbena, basil, and lotus. We used a relatively fine grind at 8.5 on our EK43s, with a slightly lower coffee to water ratio of 1:16.67. This yielded a TDS of 1.41 on the St. Anthony F70 flat bottomed brewer. 

Because of this “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approach, we decided to see if the recipe translated to the Kalita Wave, a similar brewer but with three drainage holes instead of one. Unsurprisingly it was a success, though this brew brought out a bit more caramel sweetness and floral complexity. The stonefruit and berry remained as present as in the last cup. 

Our final brew was on the Beehouse, also with the same brewing recipe. While we appreciated the lemon and watermelon this brew had, it didn’t have quite the sweetness of the flat bottomed brewers. 

For this coffee we recommend a finer grind, with a lower coffee to water ratio, on a flat-bottom brewer such as the St. Anthony F70 or the Kalita Wave. 

Espresso

Espresso Analysis by MJ Smith 

One of my favorite parts of being a barista here at The Crown is getting the opportunity to dial in so many new, exciting coffees on the espresso bar. Don’t get me wrong, I love coffee in all her many forms, but espresso will always hold a very special place in my heart: the accelerator. This coffee from Ermitaño Huillca did not disappoint! It had all the characteristics of a really delicious, traditional espresso with prominent notes of cacao, tobacco, and stonefruit, with a dash of herbal, spicy goodness on the end. While I pulled a wide-range of shots, I found that this coffee, which was 6 days off-roast, worked best with slightly lower dose and higher yield. The higher doses and lower yields proved to be just a little too bitter, but again, it is only 6 days off roast. I’m looking forward to working with this coffee further as it joins our Featured Espresso lineup this week! 

Shot 1: 

Dose: 18.5g, Yield: 39.5g, Time: :29s 

After doing a bit of wrestling to get this coffee to a place where I enjoyed it, I arrived here. I tried several shots at different doses with yields closer to 37g and they were all just kind of lacking that bit of sparkle I was looking for. In attempt to bring out some of the fruitier notes I saw mentioned in the brew analysis, I decided to shoot for a yield closer to the 40g range and a time somewhere in the middle of our typical 28-32 second range. Right off the bat, I picked up some tasty notes of dark chocolate covered strawberries and blackberries, followed by just a touch of juniper herbaceousness, with a nice, round creamy body.  

Shot 2: 

Dose: 18g, Yield: 39g, Time: 29s 

For my next shot, I wanted to try for a little less dark chocolate and a little more of those fruity and herbal notes, so I dropped my dose down to 18g, while maintaining the same pull time and almost the same yield. Ask and you shall receive! Fresh tobacco, cherry, nectarine, and rosemary were my initial tasting notes, followed up with some nice, warm clove spices creeping in on the end. While both shots I discussed were pretty wildly different from each other, I enjoyed them both, however I think I preferred the body and depth to the 18.5g shot a little more. I have a good feeling this espresso is going to be a new fan-favorite on the espresso bar!