Peru Las Delicias - Lucio Huaman Microlot
Peru Las Delicias - Lucio Huaman Microlot
Farm Description
I visited Las Delicias a few years back, and then again in late 2009. It was like walking into an enchanted forest. Corny but true. We wound our way up and up a long twisty road until we were at about 1600 meters and a chill was in the air. When we finally leveled out a bit, we came into something I can't describe as a town ... more like a tiny community where the home of the patriarch coffee producer Zenon Huaman Vargas was. They are all Huaman here. It made such an impression on me, this little family-community, a place with no commerce, no store, and with such a strong multi-family group working together to improve their coffee, improve the quality of their lots to bring a better price, improve their lives. I imagine how groups of families bonded together homesteading the western US with the same spirit. Anyway, this has nothing to do with the coffee, and in another sense it has absolutely everything to do with the coffee. Brother Lucio's lot was the one that really impressed us this year, and was the highest-scoring coffee in the cuppings I did in Lima before we headed up to Cusco farm areas.
This coffee is part of our Farm Gate pricing program.Cupping Notes
It's a mild cup with floral and soft fruit aromatics. The dry fragrance has a clean fruited note, caramel, as well as a gardenia flower hint. The wet aroma has delicate sweetness, lightly caramelized sugar, and peach. It is a brighter cup, more dynamic, than our Peru small-farm coffees from Canelon, with a lighter body and effervescent quality. The lighter roasts are beautiful with this coffee, having marmalade jammy flavors, ripe orange, and jasmine hints. The body is fairly light yet with a clarified butter mouthfeel, and it finishes with apple-like sweetness. Full City roasts score well too, but the coffee tails off as you approach 2nd crack, so it's best to avoid it. As it cools, the City roast has peach tea notes, fruit up front and then a tea-like dryness in the finish. This is best as a brewed coffee; I tried some SO espresso shots with it but found it a bit too bright and imbalanced for extraction.


Comments
#1 Peru - there you are!
I took some advice from Chris and shortened my time to first crack, then extended the time from first xcrack to drop at almost FC. Very nice nutty taste, milk chocolate, smoooooth!!! I can't stop brewing and drinking. I also moved to a mesh type filter and found nice body and mouth feel with a full rich milky way note! Thanks Chris!!!
#2 It was the Kenya not the Peru...
Sorry Chris for saying something that didn't actually happen. Your advice to me was with the Kenya and not this Peru. However, I applied the same idea you gave me on that bean to this one and did find amazing results. The batch size was 3lbs and the over all time was about 12:00min. It was WAY better than my first sample roast with this bean. My Ambex is limited on the BTU's I can put out and that is showing up on these new beans. Perhaps I can improve my other offerings using the sample methods I've learned here?? Thanks again for the tip and for the nice offerings.
#3 Hey Chris, Glad that that is
Hey Chris, Glad that that is working out for you. I spoke with a some other people who have that roaster at that size as well, and they said that that batch size worked out the best for them too. I've had some really great roasts from that machine once I figured out where I was comfortable with it. I'm really happy that you're enjoying the Peru, I really found it to be super drinkable.
#4 Super Drinkable indeed!
I need a cup right now!!! :-)
#5 Need a cup now
aaawww! Got one!!!! :-))