Cafés in Peru from Lima to Arequipa

From Chinchao to the Coffees from Peru brand

Coffee reached Peru in the middle of the 18th century, probably first in the district of Chinchao in Huánuco, and in the 19th century it spread to the province of Chanchamayo in Junín.⁵ The specialty trade is younger: Peru began selling specialty coffee more than 30 years ago, and about 6,000 families now grow it, mostly arabica grown above 1,000 m.⁵

An early sign of what the southern valleys could do came in 2010, when Tunki, a coffee from Puno, was named the best specialty coffee in the world at the Specialty Coffee Association of America's fair, ahead of more than 120 entries.¹ In 2018 the government launched the Coffees from Peru brand together with a national action plan for coffee that runs to 2030.⁵

Where Peruvian coffee grows

Coffee grows in 16 of Peru's regions; MIDAGRI names San Martín, Cajamarca, Junín, Cusco, Amazonas, Huánuco and Pasco as the main ones.¹

Peru held its first Cup of Excellence, the Taza de Excelencia, in 2017, won by Juan Heredia Sanchez of Cajamarca with 92.25 points for a Caturra and Bourbon lot.⁵ Dwight Aguilar Masías of the Nueva Alianza farm in Santa Teresa, in Cusco's province of La Convención, won in 2018 and again in 2021, the latter with a Geisha grown at 1,820 m, and became the first producer to win twice.⁶

In the 2025 competition, 14 of the 32 winning lots came from Cusco and 11 from Cajamarca, while the top score, 90.64, went to a washed Geisha from Cajamarca.⁷

Café pasado, café con leche and café filtrado

The traditional Peruvian cup is café pasado (literally "passed-through coffee"), a brewing method more than a drink. Ground coffee and hot water go into the top chamber of a two-part pot, and a strong extract drips into the bottom one.⁸ The extract is thinned with hot water at the table, or poured into hot milk for café con leche.⁸⁹

It is a household ritual as much as a menu item: a Lima home cook interviewed in 2018 learned it from her grandmother and made it for her family every Sunday morning.⁸ Half of Peruvian homes keep ground coffee, according to the Cámara Peruana del Café y Cacao.⁴

In cafés the concentrate traditionally comes in a small pitcher, and in 2015 it was on most Lima menus, often made from instant coffee. A pour-over, in Peruvian usage, is café filtrado.⁹

Baristas, rankings and a coffee passport

Peru's baristas organized in 2009 as the association Artebar, which ran its first training courses in 2010, and specialty coffee shops have multiplied since 2016.⁵ In the 2025 edition of The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops, Puku Puku, a chain of 10 cafés in Lima and Arequipa, placed 20th, and Three Monkeys Coffee in Cusco placed 22nd.¹⁰ On the South American edition of the same ranking, published in October 2025, 23 of the 100 cafés were Peruvian.¹⁶

Exporters now court local drinkers as well. For the summer 2026 edition of the Pasaporte del Café Peruano, ADEX and Agroideas, a MIDAGRI program, issued a passport costing S/ 5 (as of 2026) that collected stamps at 40 cafés in Lima and Callao until June 30.³

Lima, Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Arequipa

In 2015 Lima's strongest specialty cafés were concentrated in the tourist districts of Miraflores, Barranco and San Isidro.⁹ Those three still matter, but a 2025 survey by the Cámara Peruana del Café y Cacao counted 148 specialty cafés in the capital, not counting chains, and found new clusters in Jesús María, Pueblo Libre and Magdalena del Mar and in northern districts such as Los Olivos and Puente Piedra. Its specialty winners were Monótono in Barranco, Punto Café in Miraflores and Armache in Los Olivos.¹¹

Cusco sits at 3,399 m, receives more than 2 million visitors a year and is the base for Inca sites including Machu Picchu.¹² The San Blas neighborhood has long been known as the barrio de los artistas y artesanos (artists' and artisans' quarter), and as tourism grew it also became a barrio turístico.¹³ Baristas Neto Solórzano, Iván Salas and Diego Huillca founded Three Monkeys Coffee to take Cusco coffee across the city, and Florencia y Fortunata, 100th on the 2025 world list, buys coffee grown by women.¹⁰

Pisac belongs to Calca province, whose main river, the Willkanuta, flows through the Sacred Valley.¹⁴ The same province takes in the valleys of Yanatile, whose third specialty-coffee auction, in September 2024, priced the winning Geisha lot at S/ 10,000 per quintal.¹⁵¹⁴

Arequipa, in the south, had two cafés on that 2025 South American list: Kafi Wasi, a café and roastery, in second place and Oso Café in 28th.¹⁶ Puku Puku, 20th in the world, runs cafés there as well as in Lima.¹⁰