Peru Lizana Grimanes

Lizana Morales Grimanes and Marcelino Chinguel have dedicated their lives to coffee farming and they now have more than four decades of experience. Despite their extensive knowledge, they remain open to new ideas and perspectives.

After a devastating plague wiped out an entire coffee crop, Marcelino made the bold decision to plant the Marshell variety in 2018. In order to compete in the prestigious Peru Cup of Excellence competition, the couple embarked on an experiment with naturally mutated coffee varieties to identify the best tasting one. The selected variety, named after Marcelino himself, was subsequently planted across their farm. Although some may view this monocultural approach as risky, it has consistently yielded exceptional quality since then.

Their outstanding performance is confirmed by the fact that they have consistently placed within the top-10 in the Cup of Excellence, including a victorious lot in 2019.

At La Lucuma farm, Lizana and her family shoulder the majority of the work, employing just eight pickers during the harvest season. The family has strategically divided responsibilities: Marcelino handles administration and sales, Lizana oversees post-harvest protocols, Franklin, the eldest son, supervises picking, and Yocner, the youngest, manages quality control.

This coffee lot undergoes a natural processing method. It is hand-sorted, floated, and then left to rest for 16-24 hours. Following this, it is spread out on raised beds in a solar dryer, where it dries gradually over a period of 25 to 30 days.