Cajamarca in northern Peru produces some of the country's finest coffees, grown by smallholder farmers who have historically been underpaid and underrecognized. Development of fair trade cooperatives and direct trade programs over the past decade has begun to change that, revealing coffees of remarkable quality. The region's high altitude and rich Andean soils produce clean, sweet, delicately fruited cups.
Cajamarca is where Peru's specialty coffee renaissance began. As cooperatives have invested in better processing infrastructure, the region has emerged from bulk commodity coffee into a genuine specialty origin.