White flowers, sweet orange, and a sweetness reminiscent of cane sugar. This coffee from Guatemala has a floral and fresh profile, with a citrus acidity that brings every sip to life. It is light, sweet, and very clean—one of those coffees you want to brew again and again. We love how the floral notes pair with the orange, which adds a citrusy and juicy touch, while the sweetness rounds out the cup without taking away its freshness. The result is a delicate, balanced coffee full of nuances, yet very easy to enjoy. Perfect for brewing as a filter coffee and sipping slowly.
HISTORY
In popti’, the Mayan language spoken in this part of Huehuetenango, q’antxabina is the name of the guachipilín, a tree native to the region that coffee plantations in the area have been using for generations to provide shade for the coffee plants. That is where the farm’s name comes from, and it is no decorative detail: the guachipilín grows among its plants, alongside the inga and gravilea, and is part of what allows the coffee to ripen slowly and sheltered from the sun. This coffee is literally named after the tree under which it has grown.
Behind the farm is Isabel Ramírez, a second-generation producer in the village of Com, in the municipality of Concepción Huista. Her husband started the farm more than twenty years ago, but low coffee prices and a lack of resources eventually forced him to emigrate to the United States. Isabel stayed in charge of the land, took over management, and today teaches her children how to work. It is one and a half hectares that produce just under 1,800 kilos a year: a small farm, closely managed. “From the beginning, I have tried to make coffee production profitable,” she says. “This has been the first year that I have produced and sold my coffee for its quality, and I feel very motivated to keep improving my work.”
Isabel is part of Jovemcafe, a group of twenty-five women from the village who have been organizing for years beyond coffee. They have set up a free-range egg-laying chicken coop to generate income from the sale of eggs and a nursery of forest, fruit, and timber trees to supply the community, fertilized with manure from the chickens themselves. It is the kind of project that does not appear on a cupping sheet but explains quite well why this coffee is on the menu: a one-and-a-half-hectare farm, run by a female producer who has decided to stay, in a town that is building its own way forward.
VARIETY AND PROCESSING
This lot brings together two classic, related varieties: Bourbon, one of the parent varieties of Arabica coffee and one of the most highly regarded for its cup quality, and Caturra, a natural mutation of Bourbon that is shorter and easier to manage on small farms. They are grown between 1,700 and 1,750 meters above sea level, under the shade of inga, gravilea, and guachipilín trees, with about 2,000 millimeters of rain per year and temperatures ranging from 14 to 24 degrees.
The coffee is washed and processed on a small, almost artisanal scale. During harvest, the farm is passed through three times to pick only the cherries at their peak, and the harvest is transported by horse to the processing station. There, it is pulped using a small pulper, and the beans ferment in water for 48 hours before being sun-dried on a patio for six days. Washing is the processing method that interferes least with the variety and the cup: it produces clean, well-defined coffees in which what is perceived comes from the bean and the place where it grew, not from fermentation.
RECIPE
For filter:
We use 18 g of ground coffee and 306 g of water at 90 ºC. We start with a 56 g pre-infusion and wait 45", then complete with successive pours up to 306 g in a total time of 2'30"
