La Soledad, Guatemala

Origin

• 🇬🇹 Guatemala· Antigua

Tasting notes

Character

• Clean
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In the Sacatepéquez department outside of Antigua, Guatemala, Lucia Zelaya and her husband, Don Rony Asensio, cultivate CaturraCaturraA natural dwarf mutation of Bourbon found in Brazil: compact plants, easier picking, bright and clean cup. A workhorse across Latin America. and BourbonBourbonOne of the two foundational arabica varieties (with Typica), named after Île Bourbon (Réunion). Sweet, balanced, caramel-leaning; parent of countless modern cultivars. trees at their farm, La Soledad. Shaded by ubiquitous Grevillea trees at 1750 meters above sea level, these 21 hectares of coffee trees are harvested of their fruit throughout the late Winter months. The coffee is then processed at the Zelaya family’s own Beneficio Bella Vista in a mechanically washedWashed processThe fruit is removed from the seed before drying, usually with fermentation and a water rinse. Tends to give clean, transparent cups where origin character shows clearly. manner. After the skin of the cherry is removed, the emerging fruit covered beans are scrubbed clean using a water-saving ecopulper – this helps give the coffee the crisp bright flavors we associate with fully washed coffees, but without the significant waste of water, which can be of particular concern in this arid region. The clean parchment-covered beans are then laid out to dry on newly constructed raised mesh beds located in a temperature controlled warehouse – a significant quality-driven change compared to the patio-dried lots we used to purchase in years past. The end result is a coffee that is sweet, clean and amazingly complex. In Antigua, the Zelaya family’s Beneficio Bella Vista mill is legendary for producing great coffee.