José Guevara

Aromas del Valle
Founded in 2015, the Aromas del Valle cooperative consists of nearly 600 producers in the Cajamarca region of Peru, mainly located around Jaén, San Ignacio & Cutervo. They produce several large cooperative lots, but also promote the development of high quality coffees from individual members through social, economic and environmental support. They have an extensive program of modern farming techniques, enabling quality through processing, varietal and management support.

A young organisation
The average age of leadership and membership of the cooperative is in the 30s; allowing space for agility, energy and new perspectives. They have worked hard on a fully integrated model of farmer support, with quality and the environment at the core. Aromas del Valle have provided members with over 150,000 seedlings, not of coffee, but of native shade and fruit trees. They also provide assistance in organic certification, agroforestry, and assistance in procuring and applying organic farm inputs. On the quality side, they also provide seedlings of exotic varietals, and support producers with improvements such as resurfaced fermentation tanks.

José Guevara
José Guevara is one example of an individual producer within Aromas del Valle, who has been supported to create very high quality through their micro-lots program. José works in the municipality of Callayuc, a short drive from the town of Querocoto. Here, he works on a 4 hectare farm he has dubbed La Lúcuma, located at 2000 meters above sea level. He grows Typica, Yellow Caturra and Bourbon; combined with the high altitude and cool climate, this leads to coffees that are dense, sweet, and aromatic. Like many Aromas del Valle producers, José is committed to sustainable practices, farming in a complex agroforestry system with native fruit and shade trees.

This is his washed Typica, floral, dense and complex, with notes of aromatic citrus and dense blackberry jam.