Joel Tocto Peña is a bit of a coffee nerd, our kind of nerd. Dubbed “the cupper with big dreams”, Joel has been obsessed with understanding coffee since a young age. He became a professional cupper so he could dig deeper into the craft more and know every bean top to tail. He’s still only 21.

Now Joel puts his curiosity and scientific know-how to work at his own farm in Tinajas, up in the Tabaconas district of northern Peru.It’s by no means a large operation, a reserved 1.5 hectares at around 1500 metres above sea level, planted with a mix of Castillo, Bourbon and Catimor. See where this is going?

Three varietals all mixing together to add something to the whole, a bit like Starmix. Different shapes in the one bag. Except you won’t avoid your least favourites. Sorry there’s no fried eggs (the best ones).

Joel leant into a pretty long ferment on this one. 144 hours of only the ripest of cherry in barrels before spending around a week slowly drying in temperature controlled environments. Joel also works with Aromas del Valle, a cooperative founded in 2015 to support producers across Jaén, San Ignacio and Cutervo. What started as a small group has grown into a network of more than 500 smallholder farmers, all focused on producing better coffee and getting it to market more transparently.

Joel Tocto Peña’s approach to tinkering and curiosity, chasing the idea that every harvest can be a little better than the last. Paired with helping others along the way is something we love, we loved the coffee and we loved the story. We swear we even tasted a foamy banana in the cup once.

Hey legends, we're still working on this one.

A great place to start with all of our single is 21g in, 47g out and ~27 seconds.

Correct recipe to come!