Peru Tomás Bueno
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Region: La Naranja, Peru
Farm: Finca El Cedro
Producer: Tomás Bueno Medina
Elevation Grown: 1850 MASL
Variety: Bourbon
Process: Washed
Tastes like: Cherry Coke, Jugo de Caña, Floral Tea, Chocolate
We met Tomás Bueno in person last year after working with his coffee for a while. His farm, Finca El Cedro, sits high in the mountains of La Naranja, Peru. Getting there took three hours by car, moving from paved roads to a single-lane dirt path that winds up into the clouds. By the time we arrived, the altitude was noticeable. So was the dry season. Two months without rain had left the ground loose and dusty, making the steep walk up to his coffee plots even tougher.
Tomás has been growing Yellow Bourbon for years, but he’s always experimenting. This past harvest, he added Yellow Geisha to his farm, a variety that takes more time and effort to get right. He’s also planting Caturra, Tipica, and Pache, keeping seedlings ready in case anything fails. Roya is always a concern, and he’s preparing for it.
The coffee is processed with a double fermentation, a method that helps develop the clarity and sweetness in the cup. After fermentation, it’s washed three times to remove any remaining mucilage before being dried in a system that he’s refining to handle unpredictable weather. Most of the harvest had already been sent out when we visited, but his drying beds still had a few kilos of pasilla, the beans that don’t make the cut for export. Those get used locally, sold, or repurposed so nothing goes to waste.
Besides coffee, Tomás spends a lot of time on his other projects. He keeps stingless bees, a species called Ergon, that produce a honey with a light, citrusy flavor. The texture is thinner than typical honey, almost buttery. He also grows orchids—more than 40 species in a small greenhouse next to his coffee plots. His wife is taking on more of the coffee production while he focuses on these side projects. Everything is tied together in a way that makes sense for their farm.
This lot comes from that same careful approach to growing and processing. A washed Yellow Bourbon from a producer who is always thinking ahead.