Peru Ulises Nayra Yellow Caturra

Caturra - typically bearing red cherries - is a fairly common coffee variety throughout Latin America, prized for both solid productivity and a sweet, if more traditional, flavor profile. But there is a mutation of caturra that produces yellow cherries, and when kept separate and processed with care, it can be a completely distinct experience. Floral, bright, complex, somewhere between a red caturra and Gesha or other Ethiopian varieties in the flavor profile.

We tasted several other yellow caturra lots on that trip, but Ulises’ coffee remained on top. And Ulises, his wife Victoria, and their two sons Dilver and Felix are just great folks that we’re excited to work with. Ulises is a relatively young farmer who’s committed to great farm and processing practices, and he’s blessed with a great plot of land sitting sky-high in the community of Alto Ihuamaca, outside San Ignacio. And Ulises’ stepfather is Maximiliano Garcia, who’s earning a name as one of the area’s most innovative producers. We actually like Ulises’ coffee a bit more, but that opportunity for mentorship certainly can’t hurt.

Meeting Ulises and tasting his coffee was one of many highlights of our trip to Peru last year, and it’s been a pleasure to keep in touch with him over the past few months while we’ve been waiting for the coffee. Thanks to snafus at the Port of Oakland, our Perus took a bit longer than we had hoped, but this coffee’s well worth the wait.