Our partners win best coffee in Peru!
The best coffee in Peru: First place victory for two of our coffee partners
Two of our longest standing cooperative partners achieved first place at Peru’s Golden Cup coffee competition 2022.
What is the Golden Cup?
The Golden Cup determines the highest quality Fairtrade coffees that are produced each year in each coffee producing country. The coffee is cupped and scored for quality on a 100-point scale by highly skilled, licenced Q Graders. Coffee that is scored above 80 is considered speciality.
Peru’s Golden Cup competition took place in September. More than 100 cooperatives took part, including two cooperatives we work with, La Prosperidad de Chirinos and Huadquiña.
The winning cooperatives
La Prosperidad de Chirinos
La Prosperidad de Chirinos has supplied us with their coffee since the very beginning in 1991, when they were a part of a larger cooperative, Cecooag Nor. The cooperative is based in the San Igancio province of north-eastern Peru representing 810 small-scale farming families. Due to the altitude, climate and soil of the region their coffee has characteristics that give it an acidity, flavour, body and aroma that has contributed to their award-winning status.
Chirinos members support other farmers across Peru with improving the quality of their coffee through training, support and advice provided at their Centre of Excellence. This centre was set up by Producers Direct, our non-profit partner, who work to improve the livelihoods of farmers across Latin America and Peru.
La Prosperidad de Chirinos in the San Igancio province of north-eastern Peru
Huadquiña
The Huadquiña cooperative is in the remote town of Santa Teresa, in Cusco, Peru. Located high in the Andrean Mountains very close to the Inca site of Machu Picchu.
We’re proud to have worked with them since 1994, when they were part of a larger cooperative called COCLA. Since then, with training, investment and a guarantee of sales, they’ve become very successful. It’s a small cooperative made up of 288 farmers, whose beans supply our best-selling Machu Picchu roasted coffee.
The Huadquiña cooperative in Cusco, Peru
The Golden Cup results
The Golden Cup has two categories:
1. Micro-lot category: 1st place – Huadquiña cooperative
A micro-lot coffee is an individual lot of coffee which is usually grown by a single farmer on a specific plot of land. The cherries are kept separate from other coffees growing on the same farm and are usually between 60 kilos up to a few hundred kilos of green coffee.
Huadquiña won this category with the highest score in Peru’s history of the competition – 93.92. It’s extremely rare to score above 90, and the score is almost 3 points higher than the coffee awarded second place, which is considerably higher at this level.
In 2021, Huadquiña won second place within this category, with farmer member Armando Ramirez Sanchez responsible for both entries.
Huadquiña cooperative team attending the Golden Cup
Huadquiña cooperative members at the competition: Ana Salazar (left) , Cristian Casihui (right)
“This is the best coffee I have ever tasted. The level of the competition is extraordinarily high and Huadquiña has achieved an outstanding score. We’ve seen Huadquiña’s coffee go from strength to strength since over the years and it shows how long-term partnerships between buyers and cooperatives creates fantastic quality coffee.”
– Cafédirect’s coffee buyer, Matt McDonald
2. Full container category: 1st place – La Prosperidad de Chirinos
This category assesses a much larger volume of coffee. A container equates to 19 tonnes of coffee beans which is around 275 sacks. Chirinos scored 85.42 which is an outstanding achievement for such a large volume of coffee.
Coffee grading at the Golden Cup
Better lives mean better tasting coffee
We are incredibly proud of our partners’ achievements. This standard of coffee can only be achieved through rigorous testing of crop varieties, processing, and quality control. It demonstrates how cooperatives can invest in the quality of their coffee when they have the security of a long-term partner like us, who they can rely on to buy their produce year after year. It’s proof that fair prices, partnership and investment creates better lives and better tasting coffee. It’s better for everyone.
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Part of the family: Huadquiña co-operative
