La Osa, named after the endangered spectacled bear, was grown by four women, all members of Cooperativa Agraria Frontera San Ignacio, whose farms are located in a remote region of the Peruvian Andes. Home to many endangered species, including jaguars, peccaries, and tapirs, this incredible ecosystem was once part of the Incan empire, whose descendants are now trying to protect this magical place for future generations. COOPAFSI has been working with the Peruvian government and local preservation teams to protect these rare animals, contributing funds from this year’s harvest to their neighbouring nature sanctuary.

 This coffee is the result of many overlapping programs and areas of expertise which make COOPAFSI leaders in both quality and sustainability in this region. Their coffees have been sought after with increasing fervour, as the terroir and quality potential of the San Ignacio region has become more widely known. Increasing attention recently from coffee traders large and small has seen new offices and purchase points going up by the dozen over the last few years. While this is good from a market perspective, an increase in private buyers risks undermining the importance of farmer’s cooperatives in the small communities which make up northern Peru. These coops encourage participation by those members who may otherwise not have access in a so-called free market system to training, quality resources, or benefits such as savings programs and health care.

COOPAFSI made this intersectional, ambitious coffee possible, amplifying the work of female producers and supporting their training in experimental processing styles, such as the anaerobic fermentation of this lot. To produce this coffee, first the cherries were floated in baskets to separate the best quality, then anaerobically fermented for 18 hours before drying in solar tunnels on raised beds for 24 days. The four women who produced it - Fredesvinda Granda, Maria Edita Cordova, Maria Emita Garcia, and Felipa Medina - decided on this difficult method in order to accentuate the fruit and floral characteristics of their coffee, and their outstanding work has done exactly that - a coffee with a big story, a big heart, and a huge amount of flavour!

  Caravan Coffee Roasters are proud members of 1% for the Planet. For more information please visit https://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org

BREWING GUIDE 

La Osa is a bright and punchy coffee, so longer extraction ratios will help balance it out. Try pulling shots at 18g of coffee in, 40-42g of liquid espresso out, with shot times from 30-33 seconds. In milk, expect notes of strawberry cheesecake and vanilla biscuits.