This Sidra lot comes from Consuelo Rubio and her children, Richard, Blanca Flor and Roxana, whose farm, Finca San Francisco, sits on the slopes of the Andes Mountains (at approximately 1800 M.A.S.L), near the village of El Lirio in northern Peru. The family applies meticulous care and a scientific approach to cultivating and processing their coffees, which we had the opportunity to witness up-close when spending time on their farm in 2022 and 2024. The resulting profile of this Sidra is super sweet and complex – we taste juicy raspberry and red plum, with a brown sugar sweetness.

Consuelo's story

The Rubio family has been farming coffee on the same land for generations. Consuelo's father-in-law originally managed the coffee fields for the owner of a large estate in the region. In 1969, the Peruvian government initiated agrarian reforms, which split up the vast estates (held by a group of elite and powerful landowners at the time) and redistributed the land to the rural workers. Following these reforms, the Rubio family had the opportunity to purchase a small parcel of the land which they had previously managed. In the 1990s, Consuelo and her husband began planting coffee trees on the farm, with an initial focus on cultivating Typica, Caturra and Timor.  

The family’s production of Sidra as their flagship varietal resulted from a series of lucky events. In the early 2000s, a friend gifted the family five Sidra plants that he had collected from a trip to Ecuador. The Rubio family forgot about the gift, only rediscovering the plants years later while Consuelo’s late husband was on a walk through the farm. Unlike the family’s other varietals – which had been affected by a leaf rust outbreak that year (a disease affecting coffee plants) – the small cluster of Sidra plants was in beautiful condition. Mystified, he sowed the seeds and the coffee’s unique profile blew him away. It was only after further research that the family connected the dots and recalled their friend’s gift from Ecuador!

We were introduced to the Rubio family in 2022 and spent some time on their impeccable estate then and in 2024 – as you can see from our drone footage, the meticulous care they have taken in cultivating their plants is a sight to behold!  This is the third harvest that we have purchased from Consuelo and we're excited about continuing to work together as they remain at the forefront of progressive coffee production in Peru.

Production process

The Rubio family takes a scientific, precise approach to processing – they measure and record the changes in the coffee cherries at every stage of the process to ensure a consistent cup profile. This Sidra underwent an anoxic washed process.  Between July and September 2024, the cherries were selectively harvested when they reached an average Brix (i.e. natural sugar level) of 18%. They were then de-pulped and fermented in a restricted oxygen environment (sealed, airtight GrainPro bags) for 40 hours (until the pH level of the beans reached 4.0). The coffee was then slow dried on elevated mesh trays in the shade for 40 days.