Side by side comparison

Rwanda and Peru

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First originSecond origin

The short answer

Rwanda and Peru taste a lot alike. The biggest difference is sweetness: Rwanda is a touch sweeter.

Sensory Contrast at a Glance

Sweetness

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Peru●●●

Sparkle & Acidity

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Peru●●●

Body & Weight

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Peru●●

Sensory Radar Overlay

Rwanda
Peru

Relative to this catalog, not SCA scores.

Metric	Rwanda	Peru
Summary	A washed Bourbon cup: floral, citrus, red fruit, and brown sugar. High East African slopes, not a Kenyan blackcurrant bomb.	Clean and refreshing: soft florals and delicate fruit. A quiet cup if washed Ethiopias feel too loud.
Tasting notes	floral, citrus, red fruit, brown sugar, tea-like sweetness	jasmine tea, green apple, cane sugar, almond, soft citrus
Who grows it	Hundreds of thousands of smallholders delivering cherry to washing stations.	Smallholder cooperatives in Cajamarca, Amazonas, Cusco, and neighboring regions.
Producers in detail	The picture is 400,000 smallholdings, not large estates. Families pick cherry and deliver it to a washing station. The station - not a single farm name - is the producer credit on most specialty bags. That post-1994 mill network is why washed Rwanda exists as a shopper category.	CENFROCAFE, CECANOR, and similar cooperatives made Peruvian smallholders visible to specialty buyers. A bag may name a cooperative, a district, or a women’s producer group. Traceability is often at association level rather than a single finca - still a real producer story, just a collective one.
Terroir	Volcanic highlands and garden plots rather than estate rows. Banana and coffee often share the same slope. Cool elevation plus fully washed Bourbon is the terroir: florals and citrus, a medium body, brown-sugar sweetness. It is not a wet-hulled or natural-default origin.	Eastern Andean slopes facing Amazon humidity, or drier inter-Andean valleys. High farms in Cajamarca and Cusco give florals; jungle-edge San Martín lots can taste greener if altitude is lower. Shop for a highland region name.
Process	Specialty lots are fully washed at a washing station.	Often washed.
Process in detail	Cherry goes to a washing station, is pulped, fermented, washed, and dried - often on raised beds. That fully washed path is the specialty default. It is how smallholders turned garden cherry into an export grade after stations were rebuilt.	Washed Peruvian lots are pulped and fermented at small mills, then dried on raised beds or tarps. The profile is clean, floral, and lightly fruity rather than heavy or earthy - closer to a quiet Colombia than to Sumatra. Honey and natural experiments exist in Cajamarca and Cusco but are still the minority on export bags.
Brew tag	Filter	Filter
Bag cue	Look for Rwanda, washed, Bourbon or red fruit - floral citrus, not Kenya blackcurrant.	Look for Peru, washed, floral or clean. Cajamarca or Cusco if a region is listed.
Cafe order	A washed Rwanda, light roast, black - floral, citrus, red fruit.	A washed Peru, Cajamarca or Cusco if you have it - the quiet floral one, black, not heavy milk.
Milk	Black	Black
Species	arabica	arabica
Altitude (light)	Highland specialty lots - typically 1,400–2,000m	High Andes - often 1,200–2,000m
Altitude (detail)	Specialty lots typically grow about 1,400–2,000m on volcanic highlands. That is a trade band, not a census of every farm. Cool nights at that height are why washed Bourbon can taste floral and citrus rather than heavy cocoa.	Cajamarca, Amazonas, and Cusco specialty lots commonly grow 1,400–2,000m. That altitude supplies the soft floral lift; it is not as extreme as Nariño’s highest farms, which is why Peru stays gentle.
Varieties	Red Bourbon (when labeled)	Typica, Caturra, Bourbon, Catimor (when labeled)
Harvest	Main harvest roughly March–July.	Often April–September in the north; timing shifts with valley and altitude.
Brew rec	Pour-over, light roast, black. Plenty of water so citrus stays sweet. Do not treat it as a Kenya AA substitute - the fruit is redder and the body is lighter.	Pour-over or AeroPress, light-medium roast. Do not bury it in dark roast or heavy milk.