Peru | Finca La Despreciada

Finca La Despreciada is managed by Jimmy Marín Ciriaco, a renowned coffee grower from the Central Selva region. His coffees have been among the 24 best in Peru’s prestigious Cup of Excellence coffee competition for the last few years 2020 and 2022. We would like to share the beautiful coffee grown on this farm with you.

The Farm

La Despreciada is located at an altitude of 1650 m above sea level, on a small plot of one hectare of land. Jimmy grows Caturra, Catuai and Limani subspecies. In Jimmy’s own words, La Despreciada is the legacy of my parents. Sadler Marín García and Narda Ciriaco Salvatierra, who are second generation coffee growers. My father, who owns Finca Ave Fénix, in Santa Herminia Palomar. Handed over the farm to me in 2013, the same year that rust hit coffee plantations across Peru.
Name La Despreciada was given because the farm was home for Caturra and Catuai varieties. Nobody wanted that because they were not resistant to rust. Everybody started growing Catimor, but I decided to stick with these two varieties. I regulated the shade, made fertiliser and cultural work, phytosanitary control, and seedling grafting, and that is how I managed to revive the farm and move forward.

Producer

In 2015, Jimmy completed a coffee tasting course as part of the Villa Rica Municipality project and
is a national cupper, which helped him to better understand the fermentation processes and what
their influence on the aroma and flavour of coffee. And how fermentation processes help to achieve a smooth and uniform quality in the cup. In the same year, at the Caldivia School (Colombia), he studied the subtleties of fermentation processes with the instructor Edwin Noreña. It took at least four years to fully master the fermentation processes in washed, natural and semi-washed coffee. In 2017, the Cerezos Café brand was born, with a range of three choices: washed, double-fermented, washed and modified natural Caturra, Catuai and Limani.

Processing

This coffee is prepared using a non-standard technique. The coffee berries are harvested manually, ensuring that only the ripest berries with the highest sugar concentration are picked. After picking, the berries have been washed to screen out the presence of chaff and other foreign objects and floating berries that are less dense, meaning less ripe. The berries are then fermented (anaerobically) in a low-oxygen medium for 18 hours.  Followed by a further 18 hours of aerobic fermentation. After the berries are spread on African beds for drying, which takes about 25 days.
As a producer From the moment he took over the management of the farm. Jimmy’s most important tasks has been to preserve the soil. Some people think that sustainable organic coffee farming is the same as doing nothing. But for us at Despreciada Farm, it is one of our core values and a way to show that our soil is healthy and fertile. Periodic chromatographic analyses are carried out to ensure that our soils, micro-organisms and micro-flora are constantly improving, which is reflected in the quality of our coffee.