GUATEMALA
BUENA ESPERANZA
NOTES
GOLDEN RAISIN
SWEET TEA
HONEYDEW
BUTTERY
BALANCED
NOTES ON THE COFFEE
BEAN SPECS
Producer Noe Isabel Castillo lives in one of the most remote
places in Central America, five hours through the mountains
from the city of Huehuetenango in the west of Guatemala. This
coffee was grown on her family’s 6.5 hectare farm, Buena
Esperanza, meaning “good hope” in Spanish. Our Director of
Coffee was in Huehuetenango this past February, learning about
what makes coffee from the region so unique. Practically
impassable roads splinter off into the mountains around the
modest city (colloquially referred to simply as “Huehue”),
leading to farms that hug the sides of mountains, with deep
green foliage and trees laden with ripening cherries. This
beautiful region is the most diverse in Guatemala, with nine
distinct Mayan language groups alongside Spanish-speaking
mestizos. Coffee is the main export here, and unfortunately yet
PRODUCER
FARM
REGION
VARIETALS
PROCESSING
ALTITUDE
MICRO CLIMATE
SOIL
NOE ISABEL CASTILLO
BUENA ESPERANZA
CUILCO, HUEHUETENANGO
PACHE, CATURRA, BOURBON
FULLY WASHED
1650 MASL
SUBTROPICAL RAINFOREST
CLAY
unsurprisingly the population remains extremely poor. Our
partners, TG Labs, are working heavily with the local community to institute traceability and microcredit programs that will
allow the farmers here to invest in their land, their homes, and
SUGGESTED BREW SPECS
their children’s futures. This coffee combines classic Guatemalan notes of green grape and brown sugar with more unique
flavors of honeydew and golden raisin, making it one of the
most all-around likeable coffees we’ve ever had.
NOTES ON BREWING
FETCO
V60
The Buena Esperanza is a really flexible coffee, performing
nicely on all brew methods. We tend to favor a slightly higher
CHEMEX
dose to accentuate its syrupy body, with an average brew time
and temperature, and average grind size as well. With a coffee
this forgiving, it’s really easy to play around with variables brew time especially shows this coffee’s complexity, with the
lighter honeydew and green grape flavors coming through
stronger at shorter brew times and the sweet tea and molasses
notes presenting more in the longer brews.
AEROPRESS
Brew Ratio of 1:16.6.
Water at 203°F.
4 minute brew time. 15% prewet.
25g of medium-fine ground coffee : 400g water
55g bloom for 50 seconds
Total pour time of 2:30 Total brew time of 3:30
32g medium ground coffee : 500g of water
65g bloom for 50 seconds
Total pour time of 2:30 Total Brew time of 3:45
16g fine ground coffee : 220g of water
55g bloom. Use paddle to incorporate at 20 seconds
Total immersion time of 1:20. Slowly plunge to 1:50