Feature Espresso: Emma Rioja | Perú

About the Rioja family & their coffee:

Rioja family cultivate coffee together at their 2 hectare farm in Perlamayo, Huabal District. Emma, Elver, Isaac and Severiano are all members of this coffee producing family. This lot comes from the family’s plot called La Guaba which is currently run by Emma Rioja Tarillo.

The Riojas use traditional cultivation methods without chemical fertilisers. Manual and mechanical weeding is carried out around the farm and coffee trees are pruned to rejuvenate them and ensure good yields.

Emma takes exceptional care during processing, resting the ripe harvested cherries in sacks before de-pulping and carefully processing with the traditional washed method. The cherries are left to rest in sacks under shade for 24 hours before de-pulping. After this, the mucilage covered beans are left to ferment in a tank for around 12 hours before being washed three times. Next they are dried outdoors on a tarp for a day before being moved to patios to finish drying over approximately 15 days. Emma turns the beans 6 times a day during patio drying.

Growing coffee in Peru at this altitude comes with many challenges exacerbated by climate change, with droughts being more frequent. The family works hard to mitigate the risks in various ways, notably by planting shade trees amongst the coffee plants and installing an irrigation system.

We’ve purchased coffee from Isaac Rioja several years ago and absolutely loved it. Sadly we weren’t been able to get hold of it again for the past few seasons, mainly because of logistical issue in Peru. We have hoped that it would come around again and so we are all the more excited to welcome coffee from this family again this year for the second consecutive season! This year we purchase for two different lots from the Rioja family and are delighted to release this one as one of our feature espressos with it’s syrupy body and super sweet and vibrant flavour profile reminding us of dates and raspberry jam.