For many years, we've tasted and purchased a number of excellent coffees from southern Peru, particularly from the Cusco region. Alongside larger volumes of coffee procured for our year-round products, our importing partner, Red Fox Coffee Merchants, helps identify more nuanced and complex lots for this release. Red Fox’s support to the cooperative can’t be overstated, as they have provided crucial services like preharvest financing and connecting the group to dedicated buyers like Counter Culture.  

The members of Valle Inca are scattered around the small community of Calca, one of the last stops for travelers journeying into the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Señor Jose Prudencio, a producer, leads this collective by organizing coffee storage and transportation. He also operates a small cupping lab in Calca to assess quality, organizing lots that showcase the farmers’ work. After several years of operating as a loosely organized group, Prudencio formally organized the cooperative in 2020. 

These farmers in the Yanatile and Lares river valleys grow mostly Bourbon and Typica varieties, in addition to some Caturra. Illustrating their commitment to crafting exceptional coffee from these varieties, farmers take meticulous care in processing and drying. Many farms have a small de-pulper, and most have ceramic-tile-lined fermentation and washing tanks—key tools for clean and consistent processing. Drying is almost exclusively done on raised beds in small solar dryers, a necessity in an area where sporadic yet intense rainfall can quickly spoil drying efforts.

Although these farmers are relatively isolated from one another, they remain connected by basic infrastructure. While dirt roads are often in disrepair and subject to landslides as they zig-zag along the steep valley walls, most farms are linked by walking paths where roads are not necessary or feasible.