Some coffees stay with you long before you ever taste them.
In 2023, on a trip to visit our partners at Valle Inca, we were introduced to producer Juan José Huillca. After a 35 minute hike through the hills of Yanatile, we arrived at his small farm, tucked into the mountains at 1,834 meters. Juan José welcomed us with coffee and a homemade lunch.
Sitting together overlooking his land, there was a feeling that this place was special. We knew we wanted to work with him before we'd even tasted his coffee.
Juan José is an agronomist and a deeply curious farmer. He grows Bourbon, Geisha, Sidra, and Pache, develops his own compost, and experiments with fermentation and processing alongside Valle Inca. Their relationship is a true exchange: Valle Inca shares what they're learning in the cupping lab, while Juan José brings what he's learning in the field. His philosophy is simple: good coffee starts with the soil.
That care extends to his community, too. During harvest, Juan José hires almost exclusively women, creating work for people who often have fewer employment opportunities in the region.
And then there is the coffee.
In a blind cupping later that trip, Juan José's coffees stood out as some of our favorites. Ever since, we've continued to seek out his coffees and the beautiful work happening in this part of Peru.
This washed Geisha is delicate, sweet, and incredibly aromatic, with notes of orange blossom, jasmine oolong, and pluot. Floral and tea-like with a soft, juicy stone-fruit sweetness.
ROASTED IN OCEANSIDE · GROUND HOW YOU LIKE IT · SHIPPED THE WEEK YOU ORDER ·
We do not buy lots off a list. Siri travels to origin, sits with the producers, and keeps going back season after season. Five years with the same farm is not a slogan, it is a working relationship where both sides can plan.
That is why this coffee tastes the way it did last year, only better.
However you already make coffee is fine. If you want to get more out of the bag, start here.
Medium grind, water just off the boil, roughly sixty grams of coffee to a litre. Sweeter and more layered.
Fine grind, eighteen in and about thirty six out over thirty seconds. Adjust from there to taste.
Drip machine, French press, milk, oat, ice. There is no wrong way to drink your own coffee.
Two easy ways in. Neither of them requires you to already know what you like.
Sit at the bar and try five to ten side by side. Thirty five dollars, and you pick as you go.
A gift card lets them pick their own bag from whatever is on the bar that week, and it works on anything in the shop.
