This year temperatures are higher than years before; it seems summer doesn’t want to leave, which leaves us with some time to enjoy cold coffee drinks from great roasters in Lima. Peruvian coffee is one of the best specialty coffees in South America, and these are four of the best roasters with their coffeeshop.
IN THE KNOW: Peruvian coffee bean has as a main characteristic e level of acidity that comes from the terroir and the roasting, this adds up to profiles subtle as white flowers, tropical fruits, berries to hazelnut, caramel or chocolate.
Expat Felipe Aliaga Ramirez moved to Perú from Chile, and here he met his other half in life and business, AJ Wildley; together, they have El Cacaotal in Barranco, a specialty coffee and chocolate store.
Felipe sources and roast his beans in-house at least once a week, so you will find freshly roasted coffee and different regions from Cusco to Cajamarca. These 26 different origins are in rotation each day so you can enjoy different coffees, one a day from Monday to Saturday for a whole month.
To have a complete experience on the second floor, you might find a curated selection of chocolate bars organized by the different cocoa regions from Peru.
Another expat, in this case, Ferran Rue, came from Spain, and here he fell in love with coffee. Now he his partner Barbara Fletcher and their team roast coffee by the sea that they sell at Caleta Dolsa, their coffee shop; here, you can grab some healthy snacks and enjoy coffee from the Cajamarca region at their espresso machine, or if you feel like waiting, they have different micro-lots roasted with love by the sea.
They also offer a fashion line made by Sandra’s Sister Sandra Fernandini called Origen and one of her art is a lovely whale that covers the wall of Caleta Dolsa
Millimetrica has exceptionally sourced coffee. Their espresso is available in some of the top restaurants in the city; Jaco Benzaquen is the roaster for this store, and their house blend Frequency is from the San Ignacio province in Cajamarca.
This small coffee shop is the only one in the city with a Mod Bar pour-over system. They offer some of the internationally valued coffee in roasters like intelligentsia or counter-culture. Cycling and coffee go hand in hand, so Milimétrica Coffee has a deal with Specialized Peru, and they organize cycling tours around the city.
As far as when we wrote this post, they are offering specially sourced coffee from the Puno region
Harry Neira, one of the precursors of specialty coffee in Peru, was the national barista champion in 2013. He has been working on sourcing, roasting, and serving great coffee for the everyday folk. Their house blend is Chabela, a blend from Cusco, Cajamarca, and Villa Rica, three of the leading producer regions in town.
Neira also offers 10 coffees for pour-over, all sourced directly from the farmers and named after them, so if you taste a Henry Chavez, you may find a Geisha from Cusco. Still, if you go to taste Wilder García, it will be a Natural Pacamara from Cajamarca.
This family-operated business lead by Jonathan Day and his sisters; first dedicated to sourdough bread, it slowly expanded to Viennoiserie, having one of the best croissants in town; the business evolved into an all-day coffee shop offering sandwiches and later pizza, using high-quality products including making every day their almond milk from scratch for their coffees. Coffeewise, they just started roasting their beans two or three times a week using coffee from quellouno – cusco, turning the whole concept into a homemade thing.
They used to work with one of the initial promoters of specialty coffee in Perú and are now looking to keep on his legacy. Here you will find only their freshly roasted house blend, a medium-dark roast great for espressos and milk drinks and ideal for pairing with their products. You can take it home in a lovely green milk box package.
These are just a few of the best coffee shops that roast their coffee; here, you can taste and then take home the beans to keep having your Best Peruvian Experience.
