Peru El Arenal Yojan Perez Fully Washed Crown Jewel

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An exciting addition to the Southern Hemisphere portfolio, this refreshing and nuanced microlot from Peru comes to us as we’ve begun to establish new relationships in the country under the guidance of Rosi Quiñones, our certifications specialist and coffee trader.

Farmer Yojan Pérez produced this coffee on two small farms called La Piedra and Playa Grande in the Arenal community of Santo Tomas, located in the heart of the Cutervo National Park, Peru’s oldest ecological preserve. The region boasts a wide range of biodiversity of both flora and fauna, and in addition to the native forests Don Yojan is growing vegetables, plantains, yuca, and root vegetables.

In particular, the 3 hectares of coffee in production have produced an exceptional microlot of coffee, one with more verve and character than the stereotypical northern Peru. Delicately floral, effortlessly sweet, gently citric, and capped by hints of ripening berries, this coffee is memorable and thoroughly delicious.

A very nice looking coffee, this green sample from Peru was expertly dried and has a very high density. Its bean diameters fall mostly within the 15-18 range, in line with a classic SHG preparation.

Yojan Pérez is growing a nice mix of coffee trees, including the traditional variety Bourbon, dwarf mutation Caturra and its hybrid progeny Catuaí, and introgressed Catimor. Intercropping with multiple cultivars is an important step in a multi-pronged approach to resisting problematic afflictions like rust fungus.

It has been a week of experimentation and teaching here at The Crown working with new roasting lab assistants. This week we analyzed two very different coffees; a washed coffee from Peru and a natural processed coffee from Brazil. Let’s dive in and look at this delicious Peru from Yojan Pérez.

Both roasts started with similar charge temperatures and ended with the same end temperature around 400F with just over a minute and half of post crack development time. Roast one delayed turning up the heat until 1:41, while roast two switched it up to 3 gas at 1:15 and had a much shorter overall roast time. Even with these differences at the start of the profile, both roasts reached yellowing just 16 seconds apart. Roast one reduced heat just after yellowing to increase the second stage of the roasting and allowed for more non-enzymatic browning to occur. Roast two was speeding along and we decided to reduce heat midway between yellowing and first crack.

First crack happened at a lower temperature in both roasts than we had anticipated so be at the ready near the machine several minutes before your normal first crack temperature. Roast one was very sweet and had more sugar browning flavors associated with it, while Roast two was brighter and even had a brilliant floral jasmine element most commonly seen in Ethiopian coffees. Regardless of roasting style, this coffee is a real stunner with a dynamic range of acidity and a sweetness that doesn’t stop. This coffee will be a star on any menu.

Unless otherwise noted, I follow a set standard of operations for all my Behmor roasts. Generally, I’ll use the 1lb setting, manual mode (P5), full power, and high drum speed until crack. Read my original post and stats here.

After tasting Jen’s fabulous roast of this Peruvian coffee, I felt like I had my work cut out for me. While I usually lean to the side of sugar development, I felt like this coffee had such intense floral characteristics that it would be a shame to go too far into post crack development. With that in mind, I decided to only let this coffee go 1 minute past first crack in the Behmor.
Also, I wanted to get a bit of a quicker roast out of the Behmor, and decided to only loaded 200g for this batch of coffee.
Immediately after first crack at 10:20, I engaged P4 (75% power) in manual mode. At 11:20, I opened the door and cooled with the automatic cooling function, with the aid of a big 12” fan that we use for smoke abatement.
The result on the cupping table was decidedly more mellow – sweet brown sugar, limey acidity, and a touch of rose floral came through. The defining characteristic of this coffee for me (though both Jen’s roasts and my own) was a very Ethiopian note: gentle thyme herbiness that complemented the citric and malic acid notes. I would be happy to drink this coffee all day! What a stunning example of what Peru is capable of!