Rock Roasters Peru Emma Rioja

A Coffee With a Story Worth Telling

Peru Emma Rioja is the first release in our new series shining a light on the incredible women shaping specialty coffee farming. And we couldn't have picked a better place to start.

This one is an absolute roastery favourite right now — clean, super sweet, and endlessly drinkable. The kind of cup that makes you stop mid-sip and just appreciate it.

Roaster's Notes

Emma Rioja Tarrillo manages La Guaba, a one-hectare family farm nestled in Perlamayo, Peru, at 1,877 metres above sea level. The land has been in the Rioja family for generations — and you can taste that care in every cup.

This isn't coffee grown for volume. It's grown with intention. Using no chemical fertilisers, traditional cultivation methods, and a meticulous hand-processing approach, Emma and her small team of five produce a coffee that punches well above its weight on the specialty market.

At the roastery, we've fallen for it hard. Super sweet, clean-bodied, and deeply satisfying — this is a coffee that rewards you whether you're pulling a morning espresso or brewing a slow filter.

Flavour Profile

• Caramel – Rich, sweet, and smooth. Not sharp or fleeting — it carries through from first sip to last.
• Clean Body – No muddiness, no roughness. Just a rounded, balanced mouthfeel that feels effortless.
• Gentle Sweetness – The kind that lingers without cloying. Naturally developed, not processed in.
  

About the Farm

La Guaba sits in the Perlamayo region of Peru at altitude — that slow, cool maturation is a big part of why the sweetness in this coffee is so well-developed. Emma cultivates a mix of Caturra, Nacional, and Costa Rica varieties, all harvested by hand once fully ripe.

The farm is small by design, not by limitation. With just one hectare under cultivation, every tree gets attention. Around 4,000 kilograms of green coffee were produced in the most recent harvest — a focused, quality-first yield that reflects exactly the kind of farming we want to support.

No chemical fertilisers are used. Weeding and pruning are done by hand or mechanically. The land is looked after the way it always has been.

Processing Method

La Guaba follows a hands-on, structured processing approach that prioritises clarity and sweetness above all else.

1. Selective Hand Harvesting — Only fully ripe cherries are picked.
2. Shade Resting — Harvested cherries rest under shade for 24 hours before pulping.
3. Pulping — The outer skin is removed to expose the bean.
4. Fermentation — Beans ferment for approximately 12 hours to break down remaining fruit sugars.
5. Triple Washing — Washed three times to ensure a completely clean finish.
6. Outdoor Drying — Dried first on tarps for a day, then moved to patios for around 15 days, turned six times daily for uniform drying.
7. Stabilising Rest — Dried green coffee is stored in black polyethylene sacks for 15–20 days before export.

Every step is deliberate. That clean, caramel body you taste in the cup? It's earned.

Why You'll Love It

• Super Sweet, Super Clean — A naturally sweet cup with no bitterness or roughness.
• Beautifully Balanced — Low acidity, smooth body, no sharp edges.
• Traceable to a Single Farmer — You know exactly whose hands grew and processed this coffee.
• Ethically Sourced — Supporting independent farmers to continue doing what they do best.
• Part of Something Bigger — The first in our Women in Coffee series. More to come.

Women in Coffee

Peru Emma Rioja is the first release in our ongoing series celebrating the women who grow some of the world's finest specialty coffee. These are farmers who combine generations of knowledge with a daily commitment to quality — often in the face of real challenges like climate change and crop disease.

By choosing this coffee, you're directly supporting Emma and the Rioja family to keep doing exactly what they're doing. That matters.