Origin: Colasay, Jaén, Peru

Producer: Merci Fernandez

Farm: La Pomarrosa

Process: Washed with wet fermentation

Varieties: Bourbon

Altitude: 1850masl

Importer: Apex Coffee & Origin Labs

Roast: Light

Notes: Plum, Lemon Cream, White Cake, Milk Chocolate

Transparency - This is our second year buying Merci's coffee. We paid Apex Coffee $6.35usd/lb + shipping to our roastery from Montreal. Apex's FOB price paid to Origin was $4.70usd/lb green coffee.

Merci Fernandez, La Pomarrosa

We're SO excited to have Merci Fernandez back on the menu! We got the chance to meet Merci last year in Chicago of all places. It was at coffee expo, and we got to brew and showcase her coffee that we roasted, as well as give her a bag of her own coffee! She loved the pink label, but told us we had to put her on a pink bag next year( she likes pink.).

We first got to taste Merci's coffee went to Montreal in 2024 to go visit one of our importers Apex, we got to cup a biiiig ol table of lots of coffees. There was some big names from Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Peru on the table.

Out of the dozen or so cups we tasted, a bourbon from Merci stuck out to me the most, as it showed so bright, juicy, floral and clean, my favourite kind of Peru expression. We were excited for this early opportunity to taste this small lot, and secure a couple bags for ourselves.

This year, we made sure to let Apex know we were interested in as much of Merci's coffee as we could get, and secured a beautiful 9 bag lot of her Washed Bourbon, and I gotta tell you, it's tasting good. Classic Peru bourbon, sweet and softly floral, you find juicy plum, lemon cream, white cake, and a milk chocolate finish.

Merci has grown up working with her family who are all coffee producers in the Jaén province of Colasay. She studied agriculture and livestock in school while working at her family’s farm, eventually taking the steps to begin her own farm, La Pomarrosa.

This washed Bourbon is grown at the high altitude of 1850MASL, it goes through 24hr wet fermentation before being dried on raised beds. You can taste the care and skill behind this coffee as it shows exceptionally ripe and complex.