Peru Maria Nieves Finca El Limon Geisha

Maria Nieves is a coffee producer from the village of Barro Negro in the district of La Coipa, Cajamarca, Peru. She works her plot with her husband, and they call it El Limón for the presence of plenty of lemon trees on the property. She cultivates one and a half hectares of coffee (bourbon, typical, caturra and for the first time this year, gesha) harvesting only ripe cherry. She then places the cherry in plastic bags, and lets them ferment for roughly 96 hours. Then, she depulps the coffee and lets it ferment for another 72 hours in bags inside the ceramic tile lined fermentation tank. Then, she washes the coffee 3 times to make sure all the mucilage is removed. Finally, the coffee is laid out to dry on raised beds under shade, taking about 20-25 days to dry. This all takes place on her farm plot, which is about a 30 min walk and 200 meter incline from her house, at roughly 1900 meters above sea level. She brings the dried coffee (in parchment) down the mountain to her house on her back, or even by mule if the load is big, before taking it by truck to the Alpes Andinos Association warehouse in the nearby city of Jaén, Cajamarca, where the coffee is subjected to quality control and cupping before being milled and shipped.

After discussions with association leadership a few years ago, Maria was chosen as a prime candidate for gesha cultivation based on her meticulous care and processing methods as well as her willingness to try new things.

Maria Nieves was the elected association President a few years ago, chosen by her coffee farming peers (about 150 in total) for her leadership skills and boldness in speaking her mind. Her coffee has been submitted a number of times to the Peruvian Cup of Excellence competition, placing in the top 25 in the 2019/2020 harvest edition.