Rumors of a regional road strike is pushing us out of the coffee growing region two day early. We have an early morning meeting to discuss the situation. If we stay the roads will become in passable with boulders and down trees to disrupt traffic flow. The road strike has something to do with not receiving the fiscal benefits of the raw crude oil being extracted in the region. The goals of the people of Cusco is to attract the attention of the Federal Government and the Oil Company who is responsible for the extraction.

We plan to cut out 3 farmer visits’ sad but necessary.
The morning moves on to a farmer meeting in the town of Colca. About 30 farmers attend the meeting with roughly the same goals as the meeting the day before. Clarify the project taking place, lay out the benefits to the coffee farmers and answer questions the community may have for the coffee buyers. Today we also had the opportunity to showcase cupping to the producers. Most have no real idea how a coffee is scored based on taste, and frankly many don’t believe it can be a true and honest way to create pricing for coffee. We put out to coffees one a true specialty grade coffee with a cupping score that was predetermined to be a 88 score another that scored 84.
Can a group of rural coffee farmers who have never cupped coffees before and most who have never even tasted their own coffee be able to taste the difference, and if they can will they understand how the pricing works in correlation to taste.

The answer yes, while honestly surprised I don’t know why I was. I fanatically believe that everyone has the ability to perceive coffee quality.
After the meeting we jump in the trucks again and head out to Jose Ramas Carpeo’s coffee farm. He has been living on this property involved in coffee farming since his Grandfather operated the farm. Interesting name for the farm, The Place Where Banana’s Don’t Grow. And indeed the farm scrapes altitudes of 8000-9000 feet. Jose is know in the community for producing quality coffee. Jose giggles and explains it’s because he works the hardest that he gets the best prices for his coffee.