March Bean of the Month | PERU CAFÉ FEMENINO
Celebrate International Women’s Day with a roast sourced from the powerful women of Peru Café Femenino.
In 2004 a group of 464 coffee growing women from an underserviced region in north Peru met with an aim to improve their conditions. Working together, they started to negotiate with each area’s coffee growing co-operative, setting new standards wherein female growers were given control of their own revenue, land ownership, and acknowledgement for their exceptional coffee.
As Café Femenino has grown, they have reinvested in themselves and their communities, sponsoring programs in literacy, health, nutrition, and finance, as well as funding schools, libraries and medical services.
The year, the 800+ members have produced a sweet and silky coffee with fruit flavours of orange, blackberry, and pomegranate, balanced by the sweetness of honey and malt, with the depth of black tea.
COFFEE ORIGIN PROFILE
Café Femenino was founded on the principle that empowered women create stronger communities. Women were once a marginalised group in the male-dominated Peruvian coffee industry, but Café Femenino’s decision to separate their coffee and take control of their production has changed not only the industry, but has had wider social impacts across the community.
Three Casa Café Femenino have been built across the region, and these buildings serve not only as meeting places and education hubs for members but are also fitted out to provide crisis accommodation for families escaping domestic violence. Soup kitchens for the needy run out of the Casas, and over the 13 years since they have been built, rates of domestic violence and malnutrition rates have gone down while literacy and income equality rates have increased.
Country: Peru
Region: Lambayeque
Co-operative: Central de Cafetaleros del Nor Oriente
Varietals: Tipica, Catimor, Bourbon, Gran Colombia, Villa Sarchi
Process: washed
Altitude: 1000-2050m above sea level
TASTING NOTES & CUPPING PROFILE
Sweet and silky, with peachy stonefruit aromatics and a densely flavoured cup profile, the Peru Café Femenino scored 86 at our cupping table assessment. Fruit flavours of orange, blackberry, and pomegranate are balanced with honey sweetness while black tea and malt notes add depth. The finish follows through on these warm flavours, with a lingering taste of roasted nuts. Clean and bright, this is a beautiful washed coffee, well balanced and smooth.
Aromas: stone fruit, peach
Flavours: honey, orange, blackberry, pomegranate, black tea, malt
Acidity: bright lime
Body: silky
Aftertaste: lingering, nutty
Cupping Score: 86.
