Peru Cajamarca Andes Gold

20 USD

From Peru to Your Cup Our most popular single origin coffee and our longest, continuously purchased cooperatively grown coffee – celebrating thirty years of partnership. Our Peru Cajamarca Andes Gold is a Shade-Grown Organic, Fairtrade Certified and sourced from 100% women-owned farms. Because of our long term relationship we are the only roaster to offer this coffee sourced exclusively from women farmers. It is a full bodied coffee with a sweet taste and a “baker’s chocolate” aroma. If ever there was a coffee with an ideal coffee flavor – this is it. If you are thinking of trying our coffee for the first time or our getting coffee for a friend, then you can’t go wrong here. It’s everything you dream about in a great coffee. The Region “Andes Gold” is a special selection of coffees grown in the northern highlands of Cajamarca in Peru. It is about six hours North of the Coastal city of Chiclayo, Peru. Because the area is very desolate and remote, there is very little commercial activity beyond coffee and sustenance harvesting of tropical fruit and herbs. About 100 miles inland from the Pacific Coast, there is Andes Mountain Jungle, at elevation between 110 and 1500 meters above sea level, that separates Peru from Ecuador. It is here in these mountains, that our organic coffee is grown. This area is without modern technology. Most villages, even one half hour from the main North / South highway, have only gravel roads, no electricity or telephone communication systems. But it is here, in this poorest of areas, that the farmers are working the hardest, with the most cooperation and commitment, we have been able to bring technological assistance to train them in active organic growing practices, to improve their harvesting, processing and drying methods, so their coffee will meet our quality standards. The people are from a very traditional Inca Indian culture, very proud of their heritage, and proud to pass that heritage on their children. It is here in the Penachi region that had the first “Organic Coffee Festival”, and the crowning of the “Queen of Cafe Organico!”. Because of improvements and commitment to the quality of their coffee, they are taking steps to begin to bring improvement to their lives and communities. The growers group has grown to nearly 300 certified organic farms in the Penachi region. EMPOWERED WOMEN CREATE STRONGER COMMUNITIES Since their first meeting in 2004, the women of the Café Femenino Peru Program have marshaled widespread social change into their communities. By overcoming a variety of barriers— including inferior societal status due to gender prejudice, adverse living conditions, and lack of self-esteem stemming from insecurities about their lack of formal education—the women have successfully stood up against generations of gender inequity. After more than 13 years, domestic abuse and malnutrition rates have gone down, education and income equality rates have gone up, and the women are no longer too timid to speak. They now stand up in front of groups, make presentations, and hold several elected positions on the boards of the coffee associations of Cecanor. Their hard work and courage means the women in their community have more decision-making power, more income, and more dignity than ever before. In elevating their voices, the women are finding solutions to community problems on their own terms. Some notable successes of the Café Femenino Peru Program include Food Security To fight the adverse effects of malnutrition—including stunting, academic deficiencies, and increase in childhood diseases—the women organize Food Security Workshops to further nutritional understanding and nutritional diversity in their community. Income Diversification To combat gender inequity within coffee-producing culture, reduce economic dependence on men, and provide women with access to productive resources, the women now breed small animals to sell, grow quinoa for the market, and collect micro-loan funds for microenterprises led by women. Schools and Classrooms Most of the women use the additional income they receive directly to educate their children. Forgoing traditional cultural priorities of educating boys before girls, the women of Café Femenino make sure the girls in their community have an equal educational footing with the boys. Community Health The women have been instrumental in empowering women leaders to be health promoters for remote, hard-to-access communities. These women help with basic first aid, provide reproductive health workshops, and distribute information on screenings for cervical and breast cancer. To reduce smoke-related illness, the women have led an effort to replace old, toxic stoves with elevated stoves that use chimneys to vent the smoke outside. More Information Certified Shade Grown Organic through Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) Fairtrade America Cafe Femenino

Origin

Peru Cajamarca