Finca La Herradura - Yesica Llanque - Washed Caturra - Microlot

Who is Yesica Llanque?

Yesica Llanque is a small-scale coffee producer from the Huayopata district in La Convención, Cusco. She is part of a new generation of producers in the region who combine careful farm management with a strong willingness to learn, collaborate, and open their work to external markets.

About Yesica Llanque and Finca La Herradura

This coffee comes from Finca La Herradura, a small, family-run farm managed by Yesica Llanque in the Umasbamba sector of Huayopata, in Cusco’s La Convención province. The farm covers a total of two hectares, of which around half a hectare is planted with Caturra. The remainder is shared between other coffee varieties and complementary crops, a deliberate strategy that helps manage agronomic risk while supporting soil health and long-term farm resilience.

Situated at approximately 1,800 metres above sea level, Finca La Herradura lies close to the upper limit of viable coffee production in Huayopata. This elevation brings cooler temperatures and slower cherry development, factors that contribute to greater structural complexity and layered flavour in the cup. The environment demands patience and precision, particularly with Caturra, a compact variety that responds strongly to altitude but offers little margin for error.

The farm follows a clear and consistent seasonal rhythm. Flowering typically takes place in September, with the first cherries forming in October. Harvest begins much later, running from May through to August. This extended maturation period allows sugars and acids to build gradually in the fruit, a key factor in achieving balance and clarity at this altitude. For Yesica, aligning farm work to this natural cycle is central to maintaining both quality and consistency from one harvest to the next.

How was the coffee processed?

The coffee is processed entirely at farm level using a washed method with extended fermentations, carried out in small, carefully managed batches. Harvesting is fully selective, with only ripe cherries picked. Once collected, the cherries are floated and washed to remove any defects before entering the first fermentation stage. At this point, the cherries ferment whole for approximately 72 hours. Rather than relying on instruments, progress is judged sensorially—through aroma, texture, and the development of molasses-like notes—allowing the process to respond to ambient conditions rather than forcing a fixed endpoint.

After this initial fermentation, the cherries are pulped using a manual pulper and transferred to sealed drums fitted with air valves, where a second fermentation takes place over a further 72 hours. This stage allows gases to escape while keeping the environment stable, contributing additional depth without compromising clarity. Once fermentation is complete, the parchment is washed thoroughly in vats to remove all remaining mucilage.

Drying begins with a short pre-drying phase of one day on raised African beds to reduce surface moisture and stabilise the parchment. The coffee is then moved to a solar dryer, where it dries slowly over approximately 15 days until reaching a final moisture content of 11 percent, measured using a Draminski meter. Throughout drying, daytime temperatures can reach around 28 °C, while nights drop to approximately 13 °C. These wide temperature swings slow the process and help preserve aromatic detail. Although pH is not formally measured, careful sensory monitoring ensures fermentation remains clean and controlled.

Huayopata’s temperate and humid microclimate plays a central role in shaping both processing decisions and cup character. Rainfall was particularly high in 2025, increasing disease pressure and reinforcing the importance of farm hygiene and precise post-harvest handling. At an altitude of around 1,800 metres, the combination of humidity, cool nights, and slow drying conditions supports aromatic complexity and structure, while demanding a high level of attention throughout fermentation and drying.

The role of AYNI for this coffee?

AYNI’s role extends beyond quality control. Through shared learning, mutual support, and coordinated market access, the association makes coffees like this possible even when conditions are difficult and volumes are small. This lot is not an isolated success, but the result of a collaborative process—one where individual farms retain their identity while benefiting from collective structure, trust, and continuity.

The relationship we have with AYNI and theirs with Yesica

Caturra is still relatively uncommon in Cusco, where Typica and Bourbon-derived lines dominate. On Yesica’s farm, the variety arrived in 2020 through a municipality-led initiative aimed at introducing compact, higher-quality cultivars suited to small plots. At 1,800 metres, Caturra is demanding: yields are lower, plants are sensitive to disease pressure, and margins for error are slim. Yet when managed carefully, the variety produces dense beans with clear acidity and a distinctly floral structure—qualities that are difficult to unlock without feedback beyond the farm itself.

This is where AYNI became central to the coffee’s development. In 2023, Kevin from AYNI cupped the lot internally as part of the association’s quality alignment work. That early evaluation helped confirm that the Caturra was not only viable at this altitude, but expressive and competitive. The balance, clarity, and soft stone-fruit character—particularly peach alongside floral aromatics—stood out across multiple cupping tables. For Yesica, this validation mattered: it turned what could have remained an agronomic experiment into a variety worth continuing to invest in.

Two years later, in 2025, the coffee was cupped again with the same clarity of intent, reinforcing the consistency of the profile across harvests. This continuity is not accidental. AYNI provides a collective framework where coffees are tasted, discussed, and contextualised, allowing producers to understand how their work performs beyond their immediate environment. Scoring and shared feedback help guide decisions around processing, variety selection, and lot separation, especially for small volumes that might otherwise be overlooked.

What Yescia and family want you to know

For Yesica and her family, this coffee carries a meaning that goes well beyond the cup. The most recent harvest was particularly challenging, with coffee rust significantly reducing yields and putting pressure on already small volumes. Faced with this, the choice was not to divide the lot or compromise its identity, but to keep the Caturra together as a single expression of the harvest. That decision led to the entire lot being sent to us, marking Yesica’s first coffee to be an international export and a milestone not only for her family, but also for AYNI members.

What they want you to know is that this coffee is the result of persistence rather than circumstance. It reflects years of learning through setbacks, adapting to disease pressure, and continuing to prioritise quality even when conditions make that choice harder. For Yesica and her family, seeing this coffee reach an international market is confirmation that careful, small-scale work in Huayopata has value beyond the region. It reinforces their belief that investing in their farm, their processing, and their participation within AYNI is not only worthwhile, but essential to building a sustainable future in coffee.