Finca La Soledad has been a Pérez family coffee farm since 1895, named in honor of a Perez grandmother, Soledad. Beyond simply inheriting a farm in a great micro-climate and altitude for coffee, the Perez family has shown great dedication to care for the trees, rebuilding the old mill to the highest ecological standards. I have visited this farm the past 4 seasons and this is the third year to offer the coffee at Sweet Maria's. And I am so happy with the lot we are offering here. It's not some crazy "fruit bomb" coffee; it's a classic Central that I find myself, on a weekend morning, wanting to select for my own brew. Henio and his son Raul work intensively on the farm, and Raul has been roasting and cupping samples regularly to master the quality control of their coffee. It might be surprising, but there very very few coffee farmers that are true cuppers of their own production. The crop was smaller this year at Soledad but I think the quality is up. Bright yet balanced, sweet yet with a pleasant bittersweet tang as well, dense in it's mouthfeel, this is a great example of the Guatemala flavor profile.

The dry fragrance has a vibrant fruit/nut flavor, a chocolate-dipped raisin and hazelnut scent. At darker levels, chocolate bittersweet notes dominate. The aroma from the wet grounds intensifies in honey sweetness, adding scent in the lighter roasts and some "brown bread on the hearth" smells at Full City roast. There is also a slight floral hibiscus scent. The aromatics are classic, clean, balanced Central America all the way, and the cup flavor follow suit. Lighter roasts have almond and apricot high notes, a clean and lively acidic snap, with vanilla malt sweetness. At City+ roast a more rounded flavor profile emerges, with a dense mouthfeel, a more developed sweetness, but still apricot-nut flavors at the foreground. The finish has a mouth-refreshing quality, with lingering brightness and a fading brown sugar taste. Now something else quite exciting about this Finca La Soldedad lot, the SO espresso. It is fantastic! Roasted just to the verge of 2nd crack, perhaps a few snaps into it, the espresso is bright, creamy, dense, sweet, chocolaty, silky. I enjoyed some shots at lighter roasts that were very citric and intense, but perhaps a little bright for some palates.

Just outside the town of Antigua is the small village of San Felipe de Jesus. And among the houses on the twisting and narrow side streets is an old coffee farm called La Folie. It is owned by Penny Matheu, having been divided off from the greater Matheu family lands and the neighboring Finca Filadelfia. The farm operates as a small estate of 91 acres, but processes the coffee at the Zelaya family mill a few miles away. La Folie did exceptionally well in the 2010 Cup of Excellence competition, reaching 5th place, an amazing result for a first-time entrant. I visited the farm after the event, and despite the fact it was bombarded with rain and mud in a violent storm the day previous. It's a beautiful old-style farm at 5100-5200 feet, planted chiefly in Bourbon, with Caturra and some Typica as well. The manager, Don Julio Valencia, lives on the farm, and the plantings are well-organized in blocks and rows, a classic Antigua style farm on flat, fertile grounds.

The dry fragrance has classic Antigua balance and sweetness, with caramel and melted butter along with a slight chocolate bittersweet scent. The wet aroma has a cocoa powder and milk chocolate biscuit quality, with sweetness fading into the background. As with another Antigua coffee this year, the Carmona Pulcal, that wet aroma is a little deceiving. The cup has less chocolate bittersweet aggressive notes than the aroma suggests. For an Antigua, it has a bright and refined acidity, juicy in the body, and very sweet. Apple fruit notes with a touch of blackberry syrup well describes the sweet flavors, while caramelized sugars is contributed from the roast taste (City + roast level). Toasted nut roast tone emerges as it cools. It's a mild, yet very sweet and attractive coffee. It makes perfect sense how it placed so well in the competition, and why it is such an attractive cup. We pulled SO Espresso shots of it and they were delicate in the clear, crisp acidity, with subtle floral and citric notes. Beautiful stuff.

Finca Rosma is a small farm near Michicoy town in San Pedro Necta area of Huehuetenango. It's not far from other farms we have bought from, like Finca Huixoc and La Providencia Dos. Finca Rosma is owned by the Rosales family, managed by the son Fredy Rosales. The name is in honor of his grandmother, Rosemarie. It's located on a high ridge where you drive in to the farm at nearly 1900 meters, then descend down to the mill at around 1600 meters. When Alejandro Rosales bought the farm in 1963, the only way to get there was by foot, or horseback. It's not that easy of a trek by road, either. The farm is quite steep, typical for the high ridges of the Sierra Los Cuchumatanes mountains. I found the plantings to be quite a jumble of cultivars. There were certainly a lot of old Bourbon trees, but I saw a lot of Typica (Arabigo), and some Caturra and Catuai as well. There were red and yellow varietals. Processing is wet-process, traditional fermentation, but they are working with a very tight space; there is not a lot of flat areas in this topography. So they have to manage their batch sizes carefully or they will rapidly run out of patio space for sun-drying the coffee. Regardless of the details, they are producing an amazing coffee, and I wouldn't suggest that they change a thing! Since it was #2 in the 2010 CoE, it seems others agree.

The Finca Rosma is so sweet in the aromatics, laced with prized floral and fruited elements. The dry grounds have plum and dark cherry notes, with mild milk chocolate roast tones. The wet aroma has the essence of sweet cherry, rose blossom, vanilla, dark honey and an intriguing hint of rosemary. It's a very attractive set of scents. The cup has lively brightness of a Huehuetenango, with all these nuanced flavors suggested by the aroma; roses, red plums, red apple, cherry. It's a luminescent cup at City roast, on the lighter end of the roast spectrum. As the roast get's toward Full City+ and second crack, it is predictably more pungent in roast taste, more bitter-sweet. Still, red apple fruit notes (a bit like apple cider) come through, as well as cinnamon and allspice.