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Central America: Guatemala
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Guatemalan coffee is revered as one of the most flavorful and nuanced cups in the world. Due to our proximity to Guatemala, some of the finest coffees from this origin come to the United States. Guatemalan growing regions vary in their potential cup quality: many have sufficient altitude, soil and climate conditions. Antiguas are well-known and highly rated. Huehuetenango from the north highland can be exceptional and have distinct fruit flavors. Coban, Fraijanes and Quiche can be nice, but they need to be cupped carefully: they can have a nice cup but sometimes less complexity and depth. Atitlan has produced some very fine coffees in the past few years. But remember, you can't count on any origin to necessarily produce a great coffee: the quality cup is still hard to find among even the most celebrated and recognized regions ...in this case Antigua. Politics in Guatemala have often interfered with the quality of Guatemalan coffee, and more importantly the shared success of the coffee farmer great and small. Unfortunately, if you read the history books, we have played a role in the state-sponsored violence. In general, remember this: Specialty coffee purchases from co-ops, smaller farms or single-owner estates (that is, all the coffee we offer). To support the "coffee elite" you buy lower-grade, low-grown cheap coffee produced and sold in huge volumes through the giant exporters. In general, buying Specialty coffee sold from small lots and established farms and co-ops means you are supporting farms and workers in a fairly direct way. Guatemala imposes a minimum wage for coffee-pickers, and it is paid on established farms and co-ops, but with the low-grown no-name coffees, who knows? Many of Sweet Maria's coffees from Guatemala are bought with direct contact from the farm, and prices negotiated with the farmer per our Farm Gate Coffee program. It's a bit dated, but here is a travelogue I did for a trip to northern Guatemala. More recently, my notes and pictures from the 2006 Guatemala Cup of Excellence competition are uploaded and 2 trips from early 2008, linked from our Coffee Library page.- Tom
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Our Guatemalan Offerings: Please refer to our Reference Page for definitions of terms and cupping numbers used below.
This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing transparency program.
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Update 5/27/09: I have had the opportunity to cup our Hacienda Esmeralda Gesha vac pack lots (#2, #10) from last year against the new crop, and was surprised at the quality of the '08 coffees. I took the most expensive coffee from the '09 auction home for the weekend, and brewing it every which way, I made coffee I thought was "nice" but nothing that really popped out, nothing I would pay $117 a pound for! It made me think about what I really would pay for a very special coffee, and during the long Memorial Day weekend I came up with a figure, $45 per pound, as a reasonable amount for really top notch, award winning coffee. At that rate, each cup is about $2, which seems like a fair price. And if I roasted a batch that really "nailed it on the head" and another that was a shade too dark, or too light, I wouldn't be all broken up about it. So I decided, given the fact we have a few expensive coffees in vacuum pack that are not selling in this down economy, why not have a $45/Lb. sale? We are offering our formerly $125 Panama Esmeralda Gesha Lot 2 for $45/Lb (without the pound of Lot 10 we were previously pairing it with). We bought only about 300 pounds of Esmeralda in the auction this year. We have cupped all of these vacuum pack coffees and they are fresh as they day they came in!
This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing transparency program.
View Cupping Scores

This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing transparency program.
View Cupping Scores

View Cupping Scores

View Cupping Scores

Archived Reviews
To view reviews for out of stock coffees, visit our Guatemala Coffee Archives.
2005-2006 | 2004 -2003 | 2001-2002 | Pre-2000 Tom's Sample Cupping Log | Moisture Content Readings This page is authored
by Thompson Owen and Sweet Maria's Coffee, Inc. and is not to be
copied or reproduced without permission
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