Peru: Lali Guevara, Catuai Rosado (Organic)

Lali and her husband Yoiser have a farm at San Antonio de Chingama which is part of the Agua Azul producer group. A young family, Lali's farm is a good trek up the hill from their house in the valley - in fact it's so far that they built a little shack on the farm so they can rest there for lunch during the day and only go back into town at the end of the day.

They use around 10 - 15 local pickers to help them harvest usually, although most of the work is their own. They regularly renovate the farm to get good results, replacing trees at around every 7 years, and continuously monitor the plants for pruning needs.

They've just planted around 500 Geisha plants (should give them 1 sack of coffee in a couple of years!) but have also built themselves a nursery and produced seedlings for this plant varietal, which we're calling "Catuai Rosado". This is a mutation on the farm which I discovered with our exporter, Pepe, a couple of years ago. Yoiser pointed out some Catuai trees to me and shows me that when you opened the fruit from these trees, the mucilage (the layer of flesh between fruit skin and the coffee bean) had some pink tinges to it. Neither Pepe or I had come across this before, nor had any other coffee producers I asked about it! So we separated these cherries from their regular Catuai and... it cupped slightly better. A little fruitier and cleaner than their main lot. With our enthusiasm - and being aware that this is something entirely unique to them - they've begun planting more of this coffee.

We're calling these Catuai Rosado - Pink Catuai - because that's what Lali calls them. At some point, I slipped into calling them Rosalitas - Little Pink ones - but Key (another member of our our amazing team of exporters) began laughing... a lot. It turns out that's local slang for a baby, so we're back to Catuai Rosado until we come up with a better name!

This soft and sweet cup is full of apricot, but with a generous glug of single cream. A little redcurrant on the finish wraps this up, but that lingering sweetness and silky smooth body makes this a cup which will keep you coming back for sip after sip.

• Country: Peru
• Region: Cajamarca
• Producer: Lali Guevara
• Mill: Agua Azul
• Altitude: 1,890 m.a.s.l.
• Variety: Catuai "Rosado"
• Processing method: Washed

Tasting notes: Apricot, single cream, redcurrant.

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores

• Clean Cup: (1-8): 6.5
• Sweetness: (1-8): 6.5
• Acidity: (1-8): 6.5
• Mouthfeel: (1-8): 6.5
• Flavour: (1-8): 6.5
• Aftertaste: (1-8): 6
• Balance: (1-8): 6
• Overall: (1-8): 6.5
• Correction: (+36): +36
• Total (max 100): 87

Roast Information
Medium Dark: A nice steady roast, through first and looking for up to the first pops of second as you finish, no more.