About the roaster: Coffee Collective

Coffee Collective was founded in Copenhagen in 2007 by Klaus Thomsen, Peter Dupont, and Casper Engel Rasmussen, and opened its first coffee bar on Jægersborggade the following year. Thomsen won the World Barista Championship in 2006 and Rasmussen the World Cup Tasters Championship in 2008, but the company’s reputation rests less on competition results than on how it buys green coffee.

They buy directly from farms and publish what they pay for every single lot, a practice they helped define and now hold as a trademark on the term Direct Trade. The prices are consistently far above both the commodity market and Fair Trade minimums. The roastery sits at Godthåbsvej in Frederiksberg behind a glass wall you can watch through, the company is a certified B Corp, and it remains owned by its founders.

Victoria Atao and Finca Paulette

Victoria Atao and her husband Eudis Orosco farm at high altitude in the Cusco region of Peru, using traditional Inca agroforestry methods, meaning the coffee grows under shade alongside other plants rather than in open monoculture. The farm is split into two plots: Finca Paulette, which Victoria works, and Finca Bella Vista, worked by Eudis. Both are processed at the family wet mill at Bella Vista.

This lot comes specifically from Finca Paulette. Victoria’s SL9 trees produce mostly yellow cherries, which sets her plot apart from the mainly red cherries picked at Bella Vista.

SL9, the Gesha Inca

SL9 is known in the district as Gesha Inca. It is a local mutation thought to descend from an old Ethiopian strain that has grown in the area for decades. Its low yield meant nobody paid it much attention for a long time. That has changed as producers have started planting it higher up and managing quality more carefully, which is where floral coffees like this one come from. Despite the local name, it is not the Panamanian Gesha, so treat it as its own thing rather than a cheaper substitute.

How it is processed

The cherries are floated first to remove unripe and damaged fruit, then pulped and fermented in their own mucilage with no added water. This dry honey step, known locally as Incahuasi fermentation, runs 24 to 36 hours in the cool mountain climate. The coffee is then fully washed and dried on raised beds at around 2200 metres, turned five to six times a day over 10 to 12 days, until moisture sits between 10 and 11.5 percent. Long, slow drying at altitude is a large part of why the cup reads as clean and floral rather than heavy.

Brewing

Roasted for filter, so pour-over, batch brew, or immersion rather than espresso. The floral and green-fruit end of this profile is easy to lose to a grind that is too fine or water that is too hot, so start conservative and adjust. A 200 g bag is roughly 13 brews at a 15 g dose.

Specifications