Recently Xavier Alexander, Metric's Co-Owner and Director of Coffee, traveled to Peru. While visiting David Flores' farm, he was particularly affected. Below is a short travel note Xavier wrote processing his journey:
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"About 3 hours north from Jaen lies the sector El Diamanté, a district of San José de Lourdes (which is also a province of San Ignacio in the Cajamarca department).
To reach El Diamanté by vehicle, we crossed the river on a shanty river barge passing over choppy waters and into a beautiful, biodiverse region with one of the most stable microclimates (low, relatively stable humidity) I have ever had the pleasure to experience.
Here, young David Flores, 23 years of age, works his 5 hectares of land with incredible passion and drive which you can clearly taste in the product of his work.
In this photo, you see the path we took to reach the summit. There, we scoped out David's trees- with a pleasant surprise as we discovered he also had old Typica trees at a higher elevation. We excitedly recommended him to process them separately and send us samples from this.
Because of El Diamanté's unique environment, coffees here are extremely floral and show a complexity that is akin to Ethiopian coffees but has their own unique characteristics that run parallel to the work that David puts into his land.
My journey still continues here, learning more about this magical place, a place with food and coffee unlike any other, a country so rich in natural resources and farms that may take hours to get to on foot but are full of beauty and surprises."
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Image courtesy of the talented IG user @joshhockin, a fellow traveler on this origin trip with Xavier.