Onyx - Peru Davila Ruiz Salvador

Alto Mayo, by Red Fox Coffee

Within the Alto Mayo protected forest lies Beirut. Alto Mayo, which spans the border between the San Martin and Amazonas departments of Northern Peru, ranges from 800-3400 masl and is home to a huge cross-section of native Peruvian wildlife as well as some of the country’s most stellar coffees. While our original roots were in Southern Peru, it was the coffee-growing project within Alto Mayo that drew us into the north. In Southern Peru, the coffees were fantastic, but the areas’ remoteness and inaccessibility created a lack of market access that we’ve worked to remedy year over year. In Amazonas and San Martin, while these coffees are more geographically accessible, the project of growing them in the forest, in harmony with the preexisting environment, needed and continues to need the same type of specialty market access we work to provide.

The Beirut community has an ideal climate for coffee production, with crisp cold nights and temperate days as well as an abundance of old Typica, Caturra, and Catimor. Beirut’s harvest season begins in July and ends in October. Meanwhile, the soil is replenished with Bokashi style fertilizer prepared with food waste, coffee pulp, sugarcane stalks, microorganisms from fertile soils, and guano from the islands.
The community is formed by 30 families, most of whom have road access although some have a 10 minute walk from farm to road. The fastest way to get to Beirut is to fly to Jaen's airport then drive during 5 hours via paved road.

Salvador Dávila Ruiz’s farm, Agua Dulce, is located in Beirut, a community in the province of Bongará. A seasonal stream runs through his 8-hectare farm. The coffee plantation itself dates back almost 30 years. Salvador purchased the land in 2003 and has made significant improvements since then, including the construction of sustainable water treatment systems which involves a triple-filtration process.