Marcelino Chinguel, El Laurel, Peru | Natural FSC-8487

Don Marcelino Chinguel had been growing coffee for most of his life, well over forty year, despite that he is always willing to explore and change his way of thinking, and this lot represent that spirit, this is the first lot produced by the Marshell variety that Marcelino planted in 2018 on his farm. On the farm, La Lucuma, he lives with his family and they are taking care of most of the work that need to be carried out, hiring eight pickers only during the harvest. Within the family they had been spreading the workload in specific areas of responsibilities. Marcelino is taking care of the administration and sales duties, his wife manage the post harvesting protocols, Franclin the oldest son is in charge to overview the picking, and the youngest son Yocner is the QC manager. This lot his process as natural and after picking is hand sorted, floated and left to rest for 16 hours before laid out to dry on raised beds in the solar drier for around 20 to 30 days. Peru Overview: We have been working in Northern Peru for several years, buying specialty coffee from cooperatives and associations with whom we have built lasting relationships. Whilst a lot of the arrival quality we have seen in previous seasons has been good, we have struggled to impact upon that quality or make improvements in the supply chain as we would like. More importantly, the premiums we had been paying for quality rarely makes it directly back to producers, something we have had very little control over in previous years.