NOMAD – Competicion Albino Ibias 250g | Peru

Albino Ibias farms at Acconcharcas in the Incahuasi Valley of Cusco, in the south of Peru, at 2,050 metres. His family lives on the land, and his son Saulo — a Q Grader who runs quality control for the local cooperative — now directs the harvest and the preparation of each lot. Albino grows under agroforestry, and in recent years has pushed his coffee into higher shade forest above the farm. That expansion is a recent development: for a long time getting coffee out of this valley meant three days by horse to the nearest paved town, so families here prioritised cochineal over coffee. Better prices, quality feedback and a route to market through the Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Valle de Incahuasi have changed the calculation.

This is one of NOMAD's Competición lots — single-producer, fully traceable coffees selected for their top range.

The variety is Geisha Inca, the name growers in the Incahuasi Valley use for SL9 — an Ethiopian heirloom selection rather than the Gesha of Panama.

Processing is washed, with an extended fermentation. Cherries are hand-picked and floated to pull out any green or insect-damaged fruit, then left to ferment whole in their own mucilage for 48 hours before pulping. The parchment gets a further 36 hours of dry fermentation, is washed, and then dries on raised beds for around ten days. Finished lots are stored at the cooperative's headquarters in Andahuaylas, above 2,800 metres, before export. Incahuasi's harvest is the latest in Peru, running from September into December, so this is 2025 crop.

NOMAD's notes are pineapple, peach and pear in syrup. As the cup cools, loquat, apricot and caramel come through; the body is syrupy and dense, the acidity round and juicy. A sweet, fruit-forward filter coffee from one of the most remote growing valleys in Peru.

This sits in NOMAD's Competición range — their own top tier, bag code C.PE.ALBINO.

Freshly roasted by NOMAD Coffee in Barcelona and imported to the UK by ROAST EDIT Co.