Royal Coffee
Search
Select Page

Peru Challhuamayo Finca Tasta Honey Yellow Caturra Crown Jewel

Boxes 0

Warehouses Oakland

Out of stock

Intro by Chris Kornman & Sandra Loofbourow

The project hails from Peru’s central forest, and is run by siblings Edith and Ivan Sagarvinaga. The farm was their late mother’s project, and the two have since taken over operations. In the last handful of years they’ve refined their processing methods and expanded their operations, and hope to become a beacon of specialty coffee and sustainability. This is now the third consecutive year we’ve carried exceptional coffees from this pair of innovators.

Edith and her brother Ivan are leading by example, focusing on sustainability and independence by diversifying crops beyond just coffee to include food for themselves and their workers. They harvest three varieties of plantains, plus yucca, beans, corn, tomatoes, pine trees, and sugarcane. Last year they planted raspberries, blackberries, and pumpkins.

They hope to inspire other farmers to move away from monoculture and back towards a model of truly sustainable agriculture. Their commitment to environmental protection is runs so deep that they leave nine of their twenty-three hectares of land completely wild to protect native animals like deer, monkeys, and native birds. They also include a deer and a tree in their logo as a symbol of their dedication to the creatures and ecosystems they are committed to protecting.

The obvious energy behind the project is palpable when speaking with Edith, as our own Mayra Orellana-Powell recently did in an interview (you can read that interview here). Her passion for continuing and improving the work of her mother and engaging with her community is clear. She’s an active member of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance, and has set up outreach events locally to engage residents in and around Callhuamayo (say “chah-wuh-MAI-o”) with events like specialty coffee workshops.

Green Analysis by Chris Kornman

Very nicely dried coffee here with low moisture and water activity numbers, an impressive accomplishment in the humid central forests of Peru. Accompanied by high density and a pretty tight 16-18 screen size, we have a very nicely prepped honey process coffee here, with a solid expectation for shelf stability.

Caturra is a single-gene mutation of Bourbon, first reported in 1937 along the border of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo in Brazil. Its primary mutation characteristic is its short stature, which allows for denser planting (and therefore higher yields per hectare) and easier picking. It is a parent of Catimor group (with the Timor Hybrid), and Yellow Caturra specifically was crossed with Mundo Novo to yield a hearty short-stature arabica hybrid: Catuaí.

Ikawa Analysis by Chris Kornman

We’ve updated our V2 Ikawa Pro machines with the latest Firmware version (24) and run on “closed loop” setting. Our roasters underwent full service in October of 2018 which included replacement heating elements and an updated PT 1000 temperature sensor, and were recalibrated in September 2019.

You can download the profile to your Ikawa Pro app here:

Roast 1: Crown 6m NatEth ck1.5

Roast 2: Crown 6m NatEth js 1.0

Crown barista James Scott took the reigns on the Ikawa this week and tried out his own profile modifications for the first time. His profile choices on this Peru from Finca Tasta worked out excellently. Using one of my profiles built for natural process (blue), James boosted the charge temperature on his profile (red) and accelerate the Rate of Rise into Maillard and then slowing it dramatically, essentially reaching color change sooner and staying there longer, a bit of a Hoos move.

The blue profile tasted like chocolate chip cookies and cranberry with hints of florals and citrus. James’ red profile turned down the acidity and softened the body. We tasted notes of applesauce, caramel, jasmine, molasses, nougat, nut butter, with a long juicy finish. In both cases the coffee responded pretty well, so I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest starting with one of these two roast profiles on the Ikawa.

Quest M3s Analysis by Evan Gilman

Unless otherwise noted, I follow a set standard of operations for all my Quest roasts. Generally, I’ll allow the machine to warm up for 15 minutes until my environmental temperature reading is at least 250F, weigh out 150g batch size, and begin roasting when I’ve reached my desired charge temperature.  Read my initial post here and my updated post here.

This week, I did some comparative roasting on the Quest M3s. Our Probatino is currently undergoing maintenance, so the majority of roast comparisons came from yours truly! For three different coffees (CJ1319, CJ1320, and this lovely lot) I attempted similar heat application techniques. For my first roast of each coffee, I charged with a lower Environmental Temperature and a higher temperature as read at the Bean Temperature probe. For example, in my first roasts, I usually charged at around 260F ET and 400F BT.

For my second roast of each coffee, I started with a higher average ET and lower BT (about 275ET and 385BT at charge). The result, as you can see in the graphs below, is more time spent in Maillard for my first roasts, and more time spent in drying phase for my second roasts.

For the first roast of this particular coffee, I began airflow just after turning point at 1:45 / 250F. At 5:00 / 358F I increased fan speed to the maximum setting and began reducing heat application, first to 7.5A at 5:30 / 370F, then to 0A at 6:10 / 385F. This coffee had no trouble retaining heat and going exothermic – in retrospect, I could have cut the heat application just a bit sooner. This roast, along with my first roasts of CJ1319 and CJ1320 this week, spent most of its time in Maillard phase.

The second roast of this coffee was a bit more controlled. Just like my second roasts of CJ1319 and CJ1320, I kept the back open until after turning point. I withheld airflow for the longest time in this roast, closing the back at 2:40 / 270F. At 4:00 / 325F I increased airflow to maximum. Similar to my roast of CJ1320, I turned off heat application at 370F, but this coffee didn’t have quite as much momentum and I reached first crack at 6:30 / 388F.

One thing I noticed with this coffee is that it had quite a bit more chaff than others roasted this week. Make sure to clean out your chaff collector after roasting this one – this is truly a magnificent amount of chaff!

On the cupping table, there was a slight preference for my first roast. Lots of chocolate and toffee notes, and a gentle mandarine or marmalade acidity came through for this first roast. The second roast was a bit more heavy-handed (though it didn’t look that way on paper!) – we got cocoa powder, barbecue sauce, and plum throughout.

There was also a slight metallic note in the second roast. My ET probe’s highest reading on this roast was 290F, no higher than any of this week’s other roasts; this rules out using the ET reading as a predictor of the metallic flavor. The one outstanding variable here was the lack of airflow until 2:40 – for future roasts, I do believe I’ll be starting airflow earlier in an effort to avoid this flavor note.

This coffee was super delicious regardless, just like last year. For my roasts above, I may suggest using full-immersion brew, or brewing at extra strength and performing a bypass. There are plenty of sugary notes in this coffee, but there’s an elegantly fruity character just beneath the surface…

Related Coffee