Author: admin

It is a tradition from Mia and me to scape for holidays to Peru, on Christmas eve, just the next day after closing the doors of Cafetoria. This time, however, the trip did not start well: KLM personnel did not allow Mia to get onboard. Her passport was going to expire in less than 6 months which basically means that no inter-oceanic flights are allowed in such conditions. A heavy stone felt on us on that early morning of December 24th. What should we do now? Will we stay in Finland during Christmas? If we beg KLM to let us go, will Peruvian Customs let us in?  Still in shock, and knowing that everything was still uncertain, we decided that I will take the flight to Peru and Mia will stay in Finland hoping that Finnish Police can grant her some kind of temporal permission to travel during those days. Fortunately, Mia got a temporal passport and took the flight to Peru the next day, on 25.12.
I love being in Lima during the Christmas season. It’s shiny and not too hot but more importantly, the traffic! As people are already on holidays it is so easy to move from one place to another and I feel that for those few days only, Lima was like it used to be, accessible by any means.
During those days we moved a lot across the city, especially touring around known and new third wave Cafés which are constantly popping up in the coffee scene of the Capital. Most of these new Cafés flourish in the districts of San Isidro and Miraflores, the most attractive districts of Lima. You could think that drinking a good cup of coffee should be fairly cheap in a city like Lima, being Peru a coffee-producing country. Yet, you will be amazed to hear that in many cases coffee drinks are more expensive than in e.g. Helsinki and for sure much more expensive than in Italy itself. An espresso could cost 1.5e and cappuccino and Latte up to 3e. There are some reasons for such prices. First, the third wave coffees need good coffees that require rewarding the farmers with premium prices. Coffee consumption is not so high in Peru and that also means higher prices on drinks to make business sense. However, I believe that another strong reason for such high prices is the high rent in commercial zones which has skyrocketed in the last 10 years.
On the road to GRAN PALOMAR
On the first days of January, we departed from Lima to the region of El Palomar, to visit our dear friends who produce our best seller Gran Palomar. To reach the village is a must to pass by the cities of Tarma and La Merced. Both cities are just at 2 hours’ distance from each other but they are so different in terms of cuisine, geography, and culture. Tarma is located at 3100 masl and we decided to stay one night there and walk around its traditional streets. Tarma is a milk-producing region and famous also because of its flowers.
The following day we arrive at the village of El Palomar. It does not pass more than a couple of minutes to say hello to people that we know already for quite some time. We then leave our things in the small and only hostel that the town has. “The members of the Cooperative are waiting for you in the processing plant,” says Dante Pallardel, the manager of the Cooperative and an old good friend. He has been carrying the big responsibility of keeping the Cooperative united and motivated until now. A man of few words and good moral values and always concerned about the future of his people. I am not exaggerating by saying that without Dante’s contribution we would not be enjoying such a good coffee in Finland.
We took a truck to the processing plant which is just located a few minutes from the town but, before our arrival, we could hear already voices of children and adults and a voice coming from a speaker trying to orchestrate the event. The producers have been waiting for us for some time and we are ready for the welcome ceremony. This ceremony has not changed much across the years. The cooperative follows very formal protocols where different members of the board are given time for a short speech about internal issues and their Finnish guests. We also thanks to them for a new good year of cooperation. This time we brought to them the good news: thanks to the Lord and their own efforts, our sales of Gran Palomar have increased considerably in the past year, all this despite the hard competition. We did mention to them what many customers have said about Gran Palomar, that has it all because it is organically grown, sustainable and taste just delicious. We finish our meeting with some lottery of food baskets donated by us and also we then spend time talking while drinking a cup of chocolate and panettone, the traditional food during Christmas time.

The Women of Gram Palomar
After the celebrations, Patricia Rodriguez, wife of the President of the Cooperative show us proudly their roasting machine. She is leading the women section of the Cooperative and has tried to find with them alternative commercial activities than growing coffee. We noticed her curiosity and enthusiasm as many years ago when we donated an espresso machine to the Cooperative and she was the first one jumping on the machine and trying to learn how it works. The roasting machine has been used to generate resources for roasting services as many producers also want to sell their own coffee in Lima. Besides this activity, Patricia told us also that they want to grow their own coffee carefully and offer as a special selection.  We were so glad to hear that. We want to be part of this project and we offered them our desire to be the first customer of their coffee providing they succeed in obtaining a good quality product. So, this year, our Gran Palomar women version will arrive in Finland. Epic!
It was so comfortable to spend time with the producers. As a matter of fact, after the house of my parents in Lima, this village is our second place where we spent most of the time in Peru! We left the village with good news for both this year. This year will be the first time that we will order more than a container from them and will also include some micro-lots, from specific producers and of course, the special selections of the Women coffee!
Team Peru is back in Finland now and if all goes well I should be having a short visit to them on July.

Cafetoria roastery is in the hunt for a Head Chef for our new Café. We are looking for an innovative and motivated chef that has a passion for creating dishes and following food trends. Being Cafetoria a Latin-Nordic coffee roastery we want the Head Chef to command our  kitchen together with  our crew will take the culinary concept of Cafetoria to the highest level.
Must have

• At least 2 years experience
• Able to work independently and work within a team. Innate leader and responsible
• Be passionate about food and look to create amazing dishes and eager to incorporate influences of the Spanish and Latin american cuisine.
• Attention to details and a continuous learning mindset
• Experience in Cafe food environment
• Availability on Saturdays (optional)

We’re really looking for someone who is passionate and responsible. Wants to put in and develop and enhance the food. Someone who can align with our vision. We want our food to look amazing and taste better. Cafetoria will provide an excellent and inspiring working environment where the Chef/Cook can develop its creativity, grow as a professional and have enough time to enjoy with family and friends. We  Please email your resume to info@cafetoria.
 

Christmas time for Mia and me is about family, hot weather, turkey and panettone! Yes, since many years ago, we are spending the Christmas season in Peru. Unfortunately this time we were forced to postpone our trip till the end of December, arriving to Lima just before New Year’s eve. Our routine during the first days in Peru is nothing pretendious, just enjoying the presence of my parents and other family members, walking on the neighbourhood and appreciating the warm shiny days that have been neglected to us for so many months. This is magic!
On the second week of January we travelled to Cajamarca. This is a region located in the North of Peru which has become the main coffee producing region in Peru. Coffees of Cajamarca are also occupying most of the top places in National competitions, such as the Cup of Excellence. One thing that came to my attention is peculiar similarities between the shape of the Cajamarca region and Finland. Surely this was the preamble of the strong connections between Cajamarca and Finland that we were going to have.
I have been many times in Cajamarca but only on the highlands (Sierra). This time we travelled to Jaen which is located in the jungle side of Cajamarca. I was very impressed about how beautiful and different the jungles here are compared to other jungles such as from Chanchamayo (where our coffee Gran Palomar comes from) or from Amazonas. The jungles in Jaen are not wild, you do not see the typical muddy rivers or the exotic wild plants growing everywhere on the hills, like in other jungles. Rather, the vegetation here looks like carefully spread across the mountains, in a more aesthetic way. With the exception of the hot weather I would consider these scenarios more alike to the Highlands of Peru than rather a typical jungle geography.
We spent the following days visiting some coffee producers and their farms. Reaching them required driving through narrow trails. Javier Saucedo, from San Jose del Alto, was the first producer that we met. We tasted a sample of his organic coffee on December and now we are meeting him in person! He warmly welcome us to his house and showed us the nice arrays of drying tables that he built to dry his coffee.

He is a young father that is open to learn new techniques to improve the quality of his coffee. Building such a drying plant is not something very common between Peruvian producers because, as a small farmer, this requires considerable investment that many producers cannot afford or just do not feel like doing. So I certainly believe Javier Saucedo is a very professional farmer who we will be very proud to work with. His farm is located at 1800 masl and cultivates the caturra variety. His coffee taste amazing with clear notes of caramel and strawberry!

We visited also the Rimachin family in the same area. He cultivates Yellow Caturra and Typica. Her wife and Mia stayed in the house while the rest of us went to inspect the coffee plantations. His son dream to become an Agricultural engineer and with his education he will certainly support the family business.
Back in Jaen, the following morning  we met some producers whose coffee was chosen as one of the winners of the Cup of Excellence in previous years. Although we agreed to meet at a Café nearby the main square, we decided to go to the artisan market and eat some typical street food. As a natural born foodie, I so much enjoy these kind of cozy experiences!

After breakfast Juan managed to convince us to visit his farm located in Huabal and stay the night in his house. We then rented a car and drove up more than 1000 meters, arriving to his town after 2.5 hours.

Juan’s farm is located in a sort of wide “Quebrada” (ravine) with picturesques little towns on the other side of the river. We are at 1800 masl and the weather is quite pleasant. Juan told us that this region is always green during the year and has a sort of hybrid geography between the highlands and the jungles. Here people cultivate coffee but also other vegetables which are atypical from the jungles, like potato, carrot, broad beans, you name it!

It was also clearly seen how passionate Juan is about his cultivars, how enthusiastic he wanted to show us his farm and how proudly shows his beautiful coffee trees.

After spending some good time playing football and talking about life, he proposed us to become the Godparents of his two youngest children. We accepted gladly and, following a traditional from that region, we ended up cutting the hairs of our godsons!

Certainly I would have enjoyed to stay more days with Juan but needed to depart the next day back to Lima, being there with our family and getting ready for our trip back to Finland.
Now that I am writing this blog and thinking about the current coffee crisis that we are experimenting at this moment (coffee prices are currently bordering the 1 dollar per kilo), I am feeling proud to myself and to our company Cafetoria of the fact that we are not taking advantage of this crisis as we are fully commitment to  ethical trade and long term cooperation with small producers. We are going to stay in our commitment to value the cost of their efforts on cultivating high quality coffees. As long as they put effort on cultivating high quality coffees our prices will not go down but rather up. We are valuing their work by paying more than 6 times the current international prices and believing in a quality coffee and a high quality cooperation.
From this great trip to Cajamarca, our experience in Huabal was for us the most exciting one. We did not only agree to buy Juan’s fabulous coffee this year but we also created a strong family relationship with him and his family. Together with the beautiful geography of Huabal, we believe this place will become something very special for us and who knows, we may end up living here for large periods! The Baptism of his children and the party will be on June, so one more reason to come back to Peru this year!

Juanca /
Cafetoria