Puerta Verde is a 4th generation family coffee farm in the Ciudad Vieja (Old City) Antigua, Guatemala. It is named for the green door that marks the entrance to the coffee farm. It's a medium-sized farm at 41 hectares, and like all Antigua coffees has great altitude (1539 meters). Since they don't have a wet mill, the coffee is processed by the respected Zelaya family nearby (Bella Carmona estate). It was also graced with 7th place for a lot entered in the '09 Guatemala Cup of Excellence, and was the top coffee from Guatemala in the 2010 Coffee of the Year event at SCAA. Guatemala Antiguas are a bit tricky. When the mills in the area buy coffee cherry, it might be Antigua, or it might be from Acatenango or Chimaltenango or elsewhere. They have attempted to certify Antigua appellation coffees, but it's another fee that adds to the cost, and many aren't willing to bear it. The best way to get a great Antigua is to buy from a known small farm, and that's the case here with Puerta Verde (and our other farm-direct Antigua coffees this year).

Puerta Verde is a really nice cup this year, and lined up against other Antiguas, has a very nice chocoalte bittersweet balance and mildly fruited quality. Second batch of roasts I did tended toward a butter-caramel sweetness. The dry fragrance at optimal roast levels (City+) has that classic sweet - bittersweet balance. There's an strong chocolate scent at Full City roast, and a bit lighter I find the same butter-caramel hints, along with a slight trace of aromatic cedar. To this, the wet aroma adds a touch of sandalwood, hop flower and malt stout beer. In the cup, intense bittersweet notes are balanced by creamy body. It's a classic Bourbon cup, juicy mouthfeel, restrained flavors, classic Central America brightness and balance. When lined up with other Antigua lots in particular, traces of fruit are evident; apple notes at City+ and dark berry at Full City roast levels.

Acatenango is one of the under appreciated growing regions of Guatemala. It has always been overshadowed by nearby Antigua, and in fact many Acatenango coffees were sold as Antigua lots for many years. In mill-mark Antiguas, this is still the case, since farmers who sell cherries or the collectors who round it up and bring it to the mill rarely respect such boundries. But Acatenango coffees come from some of the most beautiful farms I have seen in Guatemala, and San Diego Buena Vista is a case in point. I have visited this farm and was impressed with their practices, the way they have separated all the cultivars on the farm, and the beautiful condition of the mill. When I was there, all the harvest was in, and they were reconditioning the mill, replacing bearings, cleaning and painting. Reinvestment and pride are always good signs at a mill! Cleanliness doesn't hurt either, and the SDBV mill, while quite old, was beautiful, even down to the flowers rimming the office alongside the drying patio. It's a really classic Guatemala coffee too, a balanced and well-structured flavor profile. The dry fragrance of the SDBVB is has a really distinct toffee sweet scent, as well as honey on buttered toast. There is a sharper sweet scent in the wet aromatic, slight berry fruits, caramelized brown sugar, and lots of, er, classic coffee scent! The body is a key feature here, with a distinct thick, dense mouthfeel. The cup is Guatemala all the way. It has that great relationship between sweetness and bittersweetness, as well as brightness, body and cup flavor. Initially the vanilla and caramelly taste and syrupy body are on the palate, but they fade into tangy bittering notes ... good bitter, coffee bitter. There's cinnamon and other warming spices, a hint of Zacapa here between the caramel-vanilla and spice notes. In light roasts there's a citric brightness, a bit of red apple fruit toward the finish, while darker roasts have a more blackberry tone. In terms of this great balance of cup qualities, this is the expression of Bourbon cultivar all the way. Which also makes it my current favorite for SO espresso. It is incredible as espresso; lemon-zested chocolate velvet!

Finca La Bella is near San Cristobal Acasaguastlan in El Progreso, and is a fourth generation coffee farm. It is the only farm in El Progreso department that we have coffee from, but it is unique in other ways too. La Bella is a larger farm that happens to have a small plot of Jamaica Blue Mountain Typica cultivar. And that is what we have here, the separated micro-lot of JBM coffee. As you may know, we buy a JBM cultivar from Kona, but we haven't actually bought a Jamaica coffee in quite a few years now. Why? I think you can guess ... it's the cup: Flat, dull, boring, blah. On the other hand we realize there is a degree of novelty in offering these pure JBM cultivar coffees grown in other locales. They were never planted in order to cash in on the name, and I can't tell you in a side-by-side cupping which would be a traditional Typica, and which is the JBM Typica. But I will say this is an old, traditional low-yield cultivar, and it cups like one. The fact this small lot receives a premium price, and is treated by a true micro lot by Teo and his workers at the farm is, very clear. It's a great, balanced cup and would beat the heck out of any JBM in blind cupping, I betcha! It's a really beautiful, balanced tenor-toned cup. The dry fragrance has an overt caramelly note, softly sweet. Adding hot water, there are ample chocolate tones, layers of milk chocolate and hints of pleasant cocoa bittersweetness. A bit of apple and warming spice emerge too. Light roasts have a lemony brightness, but anything City+ to Full City is all about body and milk chocolate. Caramel, toffee-apple, and root beer come out as the cup cools. It's not as acidic as other Guatemala coffees, especially from Huehuetenango and those areas, but it's a very nicely balanced "crowd-pleaser" flavor profile. It also seems to be sweeter with a little more roast. Usually I am recommending City roast for the best delicate notes, but I feel La Bella JBM shines at a slightly darker level.

Finca Agua Tibia is a 150 year old farm located quite near Guatemala City in the Fraijanes region. Fraijanes was compared to the high price coffees from the region of Antigua in the past. After all, Fraijanes is about the same distance from the capital Guatemala City as Antigua, but in the opposite direction. The fact is, Fraijanes coffees have their own unique character, and some of that potential is just starting to be realized. Finca Agua Tibia (it literally means Farm of Lukewarm Water - sounds better in Spanish, eh?) is located at 5000 feet altitude, and the majority of the coffee land is planted in old growth Bourbon and Typica cultivar. It is a diverse farm, with a dairy, and ornamental plant nursery, and in fact 75% of the land is set aside as nature preserve. The fact they focus on other activities has aided the coffee quality in this case: they didn't tear out old trees and replant. They kept with traditional cultivars, and have the farm planted in giant, old-growth Typica and Bourbon types with less plants-per-hectare than other farms. It's an amazing place (if you see my Guatemala travelogues, I have many photos from the farm). I have cupped this coffee for years, and always had respect for it's fine balance; it struck me as a perfect exemplar of the Guatemalan cup profile. And in fact it seemed to be a more interesting cup, and have greater flavor attributes, than most Antiguas I had cupped. It's a consistently solid and reliable coffee, and it is always the first really good high grown coffee to arrive from the new crop. At a relatively light City+ roast, where some rough surface texture still exists on the bean, this cups out like a darker roast with chocolate bittersweets. I like that, because at this roast level it still has a very lively and bright cup too, things I value highly in a good high grown coffee. Dry fragrance has clean, sweet apple-like fruit, spice and chocolate, as does the wet aromatics. The cup has malic acidity; moderate sweetness and rounded mouthfeel, maple syrup at City+ roast and with a tangy chocolate finish at FC roast. There are spicy notes in the cup: slight clove, and mulling spice. Along with the apple hint, this makes for a real "hot apple cider" effect, passing through into the long aftertaste. The body is moderate but has a balanced, rounded effect, a characteristic found in many Bourbon cultivar coffees, though most of the old parts of the farm are Typica varietal, or so it seemed on my last visit. We made some excellent SO espresso shots from Agua Tibia at a FC roast level.