Eyner Saldivar - El Cedro, Peru

Colasay, Jaen, Peru

Farm
El Cedro
Elevation
2,000 m.a.s.l.
Farm Size
1 hectare

Getting to Eyner Saldivar's farm is not a simple undertaking. It's eight hours by car from the nearest working airport to the city of Jaén, then another hour and a half by car to the local receiving village, then thirty more minutes to Eyner's house, and then a steep forty-five-minute climb on foot up a hillside to find him at El Cedro. Most of his picked cherry makes that last descent by donkey. This is about as remote as coffee gets.

And yet the coffee is exceptional. At 2,050 metres above sea level, in the cool, mist-prone mountains of Colasay district, Eyner has everything that quality demands: extreme altitude, traditional varieties, and an intimate connection to his land. Nearly all his neighbours are cousins or distant family. He inherited the farm from his parents. His roots here run as deep as the coffee trees themselves.

Colasay: A Region Coming into Its Own

Colasay sits south of Jaén in the province of the same name, in the Cajamarca department of northern Peru. It's one of a handful of emerging micro-regions that Origin Coffee Lab began exploring in 2017, sampling coffees from remote districts west and southwest of Jaén that had rarely, if ever, been on the specialty radar. What they found was striking. The flavour profiles were distinctive and high-quality, and the potential was obvious.

Today, Colasay is one of OCL's most celebrated sourcing areas – often described as a favourite on the cupping table. Around 80 to 90% of the area's production is a single Bourbon variety, and the cool, chilly climate allows for a slightly longer drying process that concentrates sweetness and complexity in the cup. Access remains genuinely difficult, particularly during the rainy season when the roads become impassable. The relative isolation that has kept Colasay off the map is also, in part, what has preserved it.

The "Bourbon de Colasay" Variety

The local Bourbon that Eyner grows – and that defines this region – has its own unusual story. In the field, the trees bear an uncanny resemblance to traditional Bourbon, and producers have always called it that. But genetic testing has revealed something more interesting: Bourbon de Colasay more closely resembles Catimor genetics than true Bourbon, though it doesn't match any known Catimor variety exactly. It appears to be the result of a natural cross-pollination or mutation that occurred in this area some years ago and then quietly took hold.

What makes this significant is what it combines. Catimor-type varieties are generally prized for their disease resistance and productivity but criticised for vegetal, astringent flavour notes. Bourbon de Colasay appears to carry the practical advantages of Catimor – more fruit per tree, strong resistance to coffee leaf rust – while producing cups that are clean, structured, and genuinely complex. It could, in time, become an important tool for producers navigating climate change. For now, it's one of the things that makes Colasay coffee distinct.

El Cedro and Our Relationship with Eyner

El Cedro covers around one hectare, planted with 200 trees of the local Bourbon and 1,000 trees of Catuai. The farm has a small beneficio – a wet mill – with a mechanical pulper and fermentation tank where Eyner processes his own coffee. It's a small-scale operation in every sense, and Eyner has faced the challenges that come with that: limited access to buyers, limited agronomic support, and, until recently, equipment that was a genuine risk to quality.

When we visited for the first time in 2022 – Roland and Paul discovering his coffee through a cupping session – Eyner had already been asking questions, looking for ways to improve. His old depulper and fermentation tank had become a weak point in what was otherwise a promising operation. When he asked for our help, it aligned with Ozone's sustainability project, which is focused on investing in infrastructure that makes a real difference to producer livelihoods. We helped finance a new depulper and fermentation tank for Eyner – and the improvement has been immediate.

This is a coffee that's still finding its full potential. Eyner is renovating part of the farm to trial new planting systems, and with better equipment and closer support from Origin Coffee Lab, the trajectory is pointing firmly upward. The lot remains small – that's the honest reality of a one-hectare farm at this remoteness – but what it lacks in volume it more than makes up for in character.

Origin Coffee Lab

None of this would be possible without Origin Coffee Lab's receiving station in Eyner's local village. OCL is the exporter and support structure that connects producers like Eyner to international buyers, and their Solidario programme provides ongoing training in farm management, post-harvest technique, and quality assessment. Without them, we'd never have known about Eyner, and he'd never have received the agronomic guidance and market access needed to move forward. It's a relationship that matters – and in a region this remote, it can be the difference between a great coffee staying hidden forever and arriving in your cup.