Direct Trade Connections, Straight to Your Mug
Floral and citrusy, the flavor of our limited-time Peru El Limon bean reflects a devotion to proper coffee cultivation that protects the earth, water and future crops. The farmers have been dedicated to tending their farms using organic farming practices since the beginning. That devotion produces a prized coffee with distinctive floral, citrus and chocolate flavor notes. But as with all beans purchased through our Direct Trade program, there’s more to the story—it’s about the deep, authentic relationships that have earned Public Domain secure and ongoing access to some of the most unique micro-lot coffees in the world.
Peru El Limon is grown just outside the village of El Cautivo in the province of San Ignacio, which sits at the top of the Cajamarca region in Northern Perú and shares a border to the north with Ecuador. This special place sits at the intersection of the western and eastern ranges of the Andes, creating microclimates in the ridges and valleys that descend to the Amazon basin.
Peru El Limon is the product of a 246-member co-op called “Cooperativa Agraria Unión y Fe La Coipa.” Public Domain’s Senior Manager of Sustainability, Daniel Cifuentes, explains the co-op’s origins: “A local grower, Lorenzo, raises coffee along with bananas, yucca and other essential crops that feed his family throughout the year, along with his work as a Q grader (a certification to grade and score Arabica coffee beans) since 2012. He and other farmers like him decided to establish the co-op to elevate the coffee trade in the region—and the result is a cooperative that has been an important partner to Public Domain since 2016.”
In addition to keeping in touch with the Union y Fe co-op throughout the year, Cifuentes regularly travels to Peru. “It’s about how we define Direct Trade. We don’t buy coffee from farmers one year, then disappear.” Purchasing through a Direct Trade program means that price premiums are added on to the value of the local growers’ beans, and these premiums are to be used to improve facilities, enhance operations or help their local community—many times combining all three due to the economic stability the premiums bring to villages.
The Union Y Fe micro-lot coffee was procured through our Direct Trade program, which helped to fund a project directed at improving and maintaining the quality of their beans. Cifuentes offered his advice as the co-op tackled their first project: “I helped them design solar drying modules for their beans, calculating how much space they would need based on the production of the average farm at the peak of their harvest. And it’s those little ways, where we help on a local level, that build lasting relationships and connections.”
Peru El Limon is a very special limited micro-lot and won’t be around for long.
