THE COFFEE BEANS

Coffee beans grown on Finca El Zapote are grown from the Geisha varietal, at an altitude of approximately 1,600-1,800m above sea level.

Geisha is a difficult plant to grow and produces a smaller yield than other varietals, however the quality is exceptional. They grow natively in Ethiopia, but has been cultivated in the Americas. This tree is taller with long leaves.

Although the high altitude and environmental conditions means a more limited supply of coffee beans, the result is a highly complex coffee that is well balanced in flavour, aroma and body. In fact, Brenes’ coffee has won several national and international awards.

Such care and attention to detail are obvious in the geisha this farm produces and was awarded the highest grade (91.90) for Rainforest Alliance’s cupping for quality, making it the best scoring RFA coffee in the world. The coffee produced by this bean is very sweet and clean in the cup, and is frequently hailed as a must try for true coffee lovers.

Here at Crema Coffee Garage, we love this single origin as an espresso or a piccolo, as you get a better sense of the flavours on your palate.

Tasting Notes: Good body with bright and balanced sweet lemony flavours are most notable, with underlying dark cocoa notes adding to the complexity for a long finish.

 

LOCATION

Guatemala is a Central American nation, south of Mexico, which is home to incredible volcanoes, protected rainforests and ancient Mayan sites that attract tourists from all over the world. It is also where a variety of unique high quality coffee beans are grown. Acatenango is a stratovolcano in Guatemala, close to the city of Antigua, which has two peaks: Pico Mayor and Yepocapa (also known as Tres Hermanas).

 

THE FARM

This amazing Rainforest Alliance single origin comes from Finca El Zapote (Finca is Spanish for estate) farm, based in Volcan De Fuego in the Acatenango region. The farm is positioned approximately 75kms from Guatemala City, perched on the lower slopes of the town.

The El Zapote farm is a coffee plantation that has been run by the Pettersen family for many generations, dating back to 1927.

Besides the great quality, the farm engages in various social, environmental and ecological processes which include in an ecologically-friendly wet mill, filtering and recycling water, and shade trees which are constantly planted to keep the soil fertile. Plus, there are almost no use of chemical fertilizers on this farm.

Part of their intensive care practices include regular data collection on the coffee cherry quality they produce and soil testing.

 

BEAN PROCESSING

Finca El Zapote uses an ecologically-friendly wet mill, which uses less water by filtering it and recycling to avoid contamination. The coffee beans are fully washed and sun dried on raised beds, then hand sorted and packed in Grain pro bags.

Each lot is cupped and cupping notes are recorded, as well as the production data such as date and time of when the fruit was harvested, when the cherry was de-pulped and how long it stayed in the fermentation tanks.