Well, 4 a.m. always comes early. But if I’m to be in Quillabamba by night fall I need to catch the first flight to Cusco.

Let me explain essentially what this origin trip is really about. We are looking at purchasing coffee through a new exporter this year who works in the Cusco region of Peru. Last year we worked in Cajamarca in Northern Peru with Cenfrocafe which yielded great tasting coffee, but a couple of things did not meet my expectations, shaking my trust in Cenfrocafe. For one thing, the coffee shipped two months late and then they cut out our partner in Peru, KC O’Keefe. KC was instrumental for our Peruvian coffee because he lives in Peru year-round and he’s the one who built the transparency contract and secured the micro lots through cupping each producer’s coffee.

This year I have decided to continue working with KC. We are also partnering with the exporter HVC. HVC has 404 coffee farmers in their database; 80% of the growers are certified organic. HVC is keeping each farmer’s coffee separate. Each lot of coffee from every farmer will be cupped by KC who will score the coffee. The score of the coffee will correspond directly to the price of the coffee to be paid to the grower. Everything is kept transparent for each party involved in the process, with no secrets withheld from the farmer, exporter, cupper, importer, roaster or consumer.
So that’s the project in Peru this year. I wanted a chance to meet the people involved in this and see it take effect first hand. I’m to spend a week meeting the farmers in 3 villages in 3 micro regions.

Once in Cusco at 11,000 ft. we settle into our 4X4 and head out to Quillabamba. In the meantime we must go over a 14,000 foot pass. After a 5 hour drive we arrive in Quillabamba. We eat lunch, even though it’s 3pm, but I didn’t want to eat earlier for fear of puking—it’s a bouncy ride! I check into my hostel, and in a half hour we head over to the HVC dry mill. This is where all the producers’ coffees wait in parchment. This mill provides a stable environment for the coffee while awaiting enough coffee from the harvest to fill a container. And each lot is scored. It will move to Lima where the parchment will be removed and it will be loaded on a boat headed for its buyers.

We cup some of the coffees that have already been selected as super specialty ( which indeed are very good ).

It’s my birthday today and we celebrate over some delicious wood-fired pizza and a surprise birthday cake (so thoughtful!).

Back at the hotel the power has gone out throughout the town. Oh: this hotel room has no hot water either! What’s up with my luck?