Guatemala Huehuetenango Espresso

Tasting notes: Lemon, red apple, and sweet toffee.

Coffee breakdown:
Country: Guatemala
Processing: Washed
Varietal: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai
Region: Huehuetenango
Altitude: 1500-2000 m

In the cup: This coffee from Guatemala's famed Huehuetenango region is a straight-up classic. It's coffee like this one that got a lot of us into espresso in the first place. A crisp red apple opens to a super sweet toffee brittle with a classic syrupy body and a clean sweet choc finish.

Harvest and process: This delicious coffee comes from smallholder farmers in Huehuetenango. Huehuetenango is one of northwest Guatemala's eight idyllic growing regions, which borders Mexico.

Growing conditions: Conditions in this picturesque mountainous paradise are ideal for coffee, with cherries growing under filtered sunlight for most of the ripening stage. A thick blanket cloud cover ensures the cherries are exposed to little direct sunlight, resulting in coffee cherries ripening just a little more slowly and tasting a little more sweetly.

Process: Smallholders from Huehuetenango typically grow coffee on only a few hectares. Due to the extreme remoteness of these smallholder farms, coffee cherries are usually processed by the smallholders themselves. Here wet processing or washed processing is typical. This allows for better moisture control, maximises vibrancy, and promotes flavour cleanliness. The washed coffee is then sun-dried on small patios. Producers are innovative and waste little, reusing organic materials produced during milling, such as compost, and recycling water where possible. This is a great cup for anyone after a classic--sweet, full and balanced; this cup is a crowd-pleaser that is easy to brew for the whole crew!