Super Strudel - Peru Dry Ferment Washed
May is over and we had ALL the weather. Ranging from searing heat to thunder and lightning, short of a blizzard we've seen the full spectrum this country has to offer.
Despite the unpredictability the world keeps throwing at us, you can count on us to deliver yet another show stopping coffee month after month and June is no exception.
This time we're bringing you guys a wonderfully sweet fruity number from the Cajamarca region of Peru. It's a very easy drinking coffee with notes of red apple honey and vanilla which together give a dessert-like flavour which we have lovingly called Super Strudel!
Super Strudel - Process and Harvest
Sergio Chinguel Alberca is a second generation coffee farmer from the village of Sport Piura in Huabal, Jaen, Cajamarca. Sergio grows caturra and yellow bourbon varieties on his family farm over an area of around 3ha. Although not certified, Sergio uses organic fertiliser on his farm and doesn’t use any agrochemicals, this is in part due to the cost of chemical fertilisers but also because of a personal preference for all things natural.
Sergio has planted a lot of shade trees, despite the high altitude, which are leguminous species that create a natural source of nitrogen in the soil. The shade provides a number of benefits to his farm, reducing weed growth rate, reducing the need for fertilisers and provides more stable conditions for the coffee plants themselves. Sergio has combined both modern and traditional farming practises, giving the farm a very
presentable appearance with very neat rows and well spaced plants, whilst incorporating many sustainable agricultural practises that have been used for generations.
Sergio and his family pick their coffee together, since the farm is fairly small they can manage most of the harvest themselves and just call on favours from neighbours in the peak of the harvest. These favours are always returned and it forms a work exchange system which dates back to Incan times and is called Ayni.
Sergio processes all of his coffee using the washed method, and over the years he has developed a protocol which suits the cool climate at the farm. Sergio first rinses and floats fresh cherry in order to remove lower quality beans and to clean the coffee cherries which may come in a bit dirty from the field. Once floated and cleaned the coffee is immediately pulped and placed in grainpro bags inside a ceramic tank. The coffee then ferments for around 48 hours until the mucilage is easily removed.
Sergio dries all his coffee on a covered wooden patio, somewhere between a parabolic dryer and raised beds. This lot was dried in the same way, a tarpaulin mat was placed onto the wooden floor and the coffee spread on top, the whole thing is covered in a thick plastic, similar to that of a parabolic dryer. Coffee takes between 15 and 20 days to dry in this climate and the resulting coffees have a very stable water activity
due to the even, slow drying.
Chipp Coffee Co - Roastery Update
May has been a month where we took London by storm! To start with Zach and Mo held a tasting and sustainability workshop at the Intuit HQ for our lovely partners at Quickbooks. They spoke about all things coffee with a specific focus on sustainability efforts put in place by producers and importers and ways in which the specialty coffee industry focuses on sustainability as a whole. It was a lovely day with great chats and great brews.
Later in May Zach was in London again supporting the amazing team at Califia, a Californian oat milk company. Zach teamed up with them to create a signature iced coffee drink perfect for the warm days so you can still get your caffeine fix even when it's sweaty outside. If you want to make the drink yourself it's super easy, simply combine a cup of ice, 25ml of strawberry puree, 250ml of Califia oat milk and top it all off with a double shot of Chipp Coffee Co Colombian coffee Cola Comforts!
What We're Listening To
May is elder emo Christmas because Slam Dunk Festival comes to town! Slam Dunk is an alternative music festival that started right here in Leeds 20 years ago in 2006. For the first festival there was a single stage with less than 10 bands playing the whole day. Now, two decades later, the festival takes over Temple Newsam for a day with over seven stages playing everything from ska to pop punk to emo classics and metal. Some of the highlights from this year were headliners Good Charlotte, hometown northern metal heavyweights Malevolence, brit metal icons Bury Tomorrow and nostalgic emo icons Hawthorn Heights. If you haven't heard any of these bands you need to check them out, each one brings something unique and so special to the alternative scene and you're sure to find something you love!
