Montaña Alta, SL09 Lot #1 Washed (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🌺 Magnolia • 🫧 Lychee • 🍊 Kumquat • 🥂 Champagne • 🍯 Light Brown Sugar

DETAILS

• Producer: Montaña Alta (producer — TBC)
• Farm: Finca Montaña Alta
• Region: Cusco, Peru
• Varietal: SL09
• Process: Washed
• Altitude: 2350 masl.
• Harvest: Nov 2025
• Size: 100g

INTRO

Peru's Cusco region — with its soaring altitudes, mist-covered ravines, and volcanic soils — has emerged as one of specialty coffee's most exciting origins. This washed Lot #1 from Montaña Alta showcases the rare SL09 variety: a Scott Laboratories selection that's uncommon in cultivation today, closely related to the better-known SL28 and SL34 but with its own distinctive cup profile of juicy stone fruit, florals, and vivid citrus.

THE PRODUCER

Montaña Alta is a small Cusco farm working with the rare SL09 cultivar, a Scott Agricultural Laboratories selection made in Kenya between 1935 and 1939. Whilst its better-known siblings SL28 and SL34 have spread across the coffee world, SL09 has remained uncommon in cultivation — making lots like this one a genuine rarity on the specialty market.

Cusco's combination of high altitude, volcanic soils, and a microclimate shaped by mist-covered ravines gives coffees from the region a layered complexity: juicy acidity, a creamy body, and pronounced tropical and floral notes that feel distinct from the more common Peruvian profiles further north.

THE PROCESS

The Washed process at Finca Montaña Alta involves:

• 🍒 Handpicked ripe cherries — Selectively hand-harvested at peak ripeness, then pre-cleaned and floated to remove defects.
• 🧪 Double fermentation — Cherries undergo a double-stage fermentation — first in cherry, then in mucilage after depulping — to build sweetness and clarity.
• 💧 Full wash — Parchment is thoroughly washed to remove any remaining mucilage.
• ☀️ Slow drying — Coffee is slowly dried on raised African beds for around 25 days, preserving structure and a stable cup profile.

The result is a cup that expresses the terroir of Cusco, Peru with precision and clarity.

THE CUP

A strikingly aromatic, celebratory cup. Magnolia leads the nose — lifted, creamy-floral, and distinctive — giving way to juicy lychee sweetness and the bright, zesty bite of kumquat on the palate. An effervescent, champagne-like quality runs underneath, adding lift and a crisp acidity that keeps the profile elegant rather than heavy. Light brown sugar rounds everything out, tying the florals and fruit together through a long, refined finish. Rare, expressive, and quietly showstopping.

Flavour Notes

• 🌺 Magnolia
• 🫧 Lychee
• 🍊 Kumquat
• 🥂 Champagne
• 🍯 Light Brown Sugar