Guatemala Ruben Lazaro Espresso

Tasting notes: Botanicals and spice, stewed apple, light toffee.

Coffee breakdown:
Origin: Canoguitas Village (near San Pedro Necta, Huehuetenango), Guatemala
Variety: Caturra, Bourbon
Process: Washed
Producer: Rubén Lazaro

Ruben is 47 years old and has been working as an agricultural labour since he was 12 years old. He earned 5 quetzales a day on farms on the South Coast of Guatemala – Mazatenango, Retalhuleu, and Escuintla, also working in Mexico for seasonal work when it was available. In 2002 he had saved up enough money to buy his first small plot. It wasn’t planted with coffee, so Ruben started from scratch, planting caturra and bourbon.

Roll forward to now and Ruben has 35 cuerdas (this is a unit of land measurement in Guatemala). Ruben is 100% dedicated to coffee; he has no other source of income, so about four years ago he decided to start focusing on specialty coffee, seeking to earn more.

Other than switching to only picking ripe cherries, Ruben attributes his success to a careful management of shade trees (he has Chalum and Grevillea), cleaning the soil well of weeds, and using a good quality fertiliser (applied at the right time of course).

This coffee demonstrates in its goodness (despite being processed in the very simplest manner) the quality given by old varietals, plus that age old factor: terroir.

Cherries are collected ripe, depulped same day of picking, fermented dry between 12 and 24 hours, washed in a different tank, and then dried on a nylon cloth on the ground.