ROUND HILL ROASTERY
Farmers
Peru – Estrella Divina
Estrella Divina is a coffee with a wonderful sparkling acidity, especially when fresh, it is a quality that is unexpected.
Peru is an origin that we’ve always bought from. In the past coffees we chose were often, solid crowd pleasers, with good structure and sweetness, predominantly chocolate and nut profiles.
As we’ve continued to buy from there we are finding increasingly complex cups, more floral notes, acidity. Backed up by tonnes of milk chocolate, red apple and so much sweetness, this coffee, vibrant and sparkling, is so perfect to release in the depth of winter.
Altitude
Peru sits at the same altitude and along the same mountain range as Colombia and the variables are all there for coffee production to be exceptional.
It is really exciting to see more coffee from there meet that potential. Coffees like Estrella Divina that have stood out as our favourite on the cupping table two years in a row are testament to the quality and consistency that is being achieved.
Incredible Peruvian lots are kind of rare because the market is so dominated by coop blends, which of course Estrella Divina is.
This is largely due to the size of lot required, and the size of farm involved. I hope what you’ll start to see if some farmers growing and developing as they are increasingly supported and enabled by the specialty market to do so. We’d love to arrive at a point with our Peruvian buying where, like in other regions, Tarqui in Colombia being a good example, we buy coop blends that we use for our Unit Fourteen but we also buy smaller and perhaps experimental micro lots from individual producers.
We’re keen to visit as although we’ve had Peruvian coffees on our list for six years we are still in many ways at the beginning of our story when it comes to the country. Our goal is always to put a name to a producer, particularly with the coffees that we use for Unit Fourteen.
This year we had hoped to visit but due to the pandemic we were unable to, given that the harvest in Peru is relatively long, running from May through to September we may yet be able to visit this year but we aren’t getting our hopes up too high given the ever changing situation.