The stunning, soaring Andean peaks of San Ignacio in Northern Peru provide optimal shade and humidity for growing specialty coffee. Here’ towards the Ecuadorian border the farms around La Coipa and El Laurel climb steeply from the valley floors, reaching 1,750 metres and more.

Most of the Arabica here is made up of traditional selections like Bourbon and Typica, or improved Catimors. This is a much narrower genetic range than you find in Ethiopia which makes what happened at La Lucuma remarkable.

Marcelino Chinguel has been farming at La Lucuma for over forty years. The farm runs as a family operation. Marcelino and his wife Grimanes, their two sons Franclin and Yocner, and up to eight pickers at harvest time from the local villages. Grimanes takes a great deal of care with the farm and after an outbreak of Ojo de Gallo (Rooster's Eye, a fungal disease that strips the leaves from coffee trees) she noticed some plants still thriving. She began selecting from them, propagating them, naming them. In 2019 she entered this selection, at the time unrecognised, in Peru's Cup of Excellence, naming it Marshel. It placed first and the family have been producing Marshel micro-lots from La Lucuma ever since, occasionally shared with neighbouring farms, and it remains one of the most distinctive coffees coming out of Peru right now.