Suma Brings High-Altitude Peruvian Coffee to Coffee Fest LA

With two specialty coffees grown at over 1,700 meters above sea level in Ayacucho, Suma showed up in front of the U.S. coffee industry — and found an audience ready to listen.

LOS ANGELES, CA — Suma, the specialty coffee and organic snacks brand of Peruvian origin based in Chandler, Arizona, took part in Coffee Fest Los Angeles on August 21–22, one of the most important B2B trade shows in the U.S. coffee industry, presenting its two flagship coffees — Cordillera and Cumbre — to café owners, roasters, and distributors from across the country, along with coffee lovers of every kind.

Over the two days of the event at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which drew more than 3,000 attendees and over 200 exhibitors, Suma's booth became a must-stop for anyone looking for something different from the specialty coffee they already know. The team ran live cuppings throughout the show, talking with more than 200 professionals interested in the brand and laying the groundwork for more than 50 new business relationships.

"Every cup we poured was an invitation to get to know the VRAEM — the valley that gives this coffee its life," said Rubén Galván, co-founder of Suma. "We're not here to compete on price. We're here so the U.S. can taste what a single grower, at 5,500 feet, is capable of."

Visitors described the experience in strikingly similar terms: complex notes of citrus, chocolate, and tropical fruit that many compared to "walking through the Andes." But for the Suma team, what stood out most wasn't just the reaction to the flavor — it was the genuine interest in what's behind the cup: a 100% organic coffee, traceable to a single family of growers Suma knows by name, grown in a region now reinventing itself through high-altitude agriculture.

"Coffee Fest confirmed what we already suspected," Galván added. "There's real demand in the U.S. for specialty Peruvian coffee — and very few brands are telling that story with the seriousness it deserves. Suma is here to change that."

With the show as a starting point, Suma is already in active conversations with independent cafés, roasters, and distributors to explore future business partnerships, and is evaluating its calendar for upcoming trade shows across the U.S.

About Suma

Suma is a specialty coffee and organic snacks brand founded by Rubén Galván and Manuel Quisgaard, friends of more than 30 years. All of its coffee is grown and processed in Peru's VRAEM region — a cloud forest valley between Ayacucho and Cusco, at 5,500 feet above sea level — before being shipped to the U.S. as a finished product, sourced directly from a single grower Suma pays at fair market prices. Suma is headquartered in Chandler, Arizona.

Are you a café, restaurant, or specialty shop owner who wants to learn more about this coffee? Email info@sumaorganics.com or visit sumaorganics.com