High altitudes, dramatic Andean climate, fertile soils and thousands of small family farms create coffees with remarkable character. Most producers work on small plots of land and handle everything themselves — from picking to drying. That’s part of what makes Peru’s specialty scene so interesting: small discoveries, rarer varieties and very individual cup profiles.

This coffee comes from the Puno region in southern Peru, near the Bolivian border. Finca Yanacocha belongs to Lizbeth Paredes Quispe, one of the youngest coffee producers in the region. She actively experiments with varieties, processing and farm management. Lisbeth represents a new generation of Peruvian producers who see coffee not as a commodity, but as a craft and a life’s work.

Yanacocha is located at nearly 2000 meters above sea level, surrounded by dense vegetation. Large temperature swings between day and night slow down cherry maturation, allowing the coffee to develop more sweetness and a deeper, more layered character.

This lot is an exceptionally rare SL9 variety. The SL line was originally developed by Scott Laboratories nearly a century ago and later became famous in Kenya, where it shaped much of specialty coffee’s classic flavour profile. Most coffee professionals are familiar with SL28 and SL34 — varieties celebrated for their bright acidity and complexity. SL9 remained largely overlooked for many years and was considered less successful. Today, it is still found only rarely, mostly in Peru’s Puno region.