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Guatemala San Marcos WP Decaf
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB Region: San Marcos Mark:  
Processing: Wet-Process, then Water Process Decaf Crop: December 2006 Arrival Appearance: .6 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: Catuai, Bourbon, Typica
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.3 Notes: The advantage of knowing exactly what coffee goes into your decaf is great, and surprisingly rare because a lot of decafs are sold simply with an origin name, and not even a regional designation to boot. But with this Guatemalan we know the region, San Marcos, and the grade (SHB, Strictly Hard Bean). More remarkable is the cup after decaffeinating. It's really outstanding, especially in the livliness of the hight tones in the cup at City+ roast. I am astounded and a little bewildered by this: I regularly cupped the Central American coffees that had undergone the SWP process in Vancouver, Canada. They had little to no brightness of the original coffee in the cup, and since that's what Centrals are about, no brightness means no origin character (well... it means a huge part of what the Guatemalan coffee is about has been removed. Props to SWP who has made great strides forward in improving technique in the last 2 years too, and recently opened a new production line for smaller decaf batches with good results.) This is not from Swiss Water, it is from the plant that uses a non-contact water method of treatment in Mexico ... what we refer to as WP on our list since no Swiss were involved (joke, but true I am sure). Here we have a cup with remarkable brightness intact after the decaf process. And it is a non-contact, non-chemical water process decaf to boot. It has a backdrop of almond in the roast taste to balance out the cup. It is a lighter-bodied cup with short, pleasant aftertaste. This cups is lively, and the body fairly light. It has a good cirtus acidity, and finishes with a nutty sweetness. Basically it cups like a good, delicate northern Guatemala coffee.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.3
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.5
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8
Body - Movement (1-5) 2.9
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 1 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild intensity/Bright tones at City+ roast  
add 50 50 Roast: City+ for the best of this fairly sweet, delicate cup, can take darker roasts too
Score (Max. 100) 85 Compare to: Excellent bright notes for a decaffeinated Central coffee - a lively cup.
Guatemala Huehuetenango - Finca La Providencia
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB, Strictly Hard Bean Region: San Pedro Necta, Huehuetenango Mark: Finca La Providencia (estate)
Processing: Wet-Processed Crop: September 2006 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: Bourbon, Typica (unsure of percentages)
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.6 Notes: Finca La Providencia is located in the Department (state) of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. That means little, since Huehue is a monstrous entity, and coffees from one sub-region can be quite distinct from another. We had bought El Injerto (actually our Cup of Excellence lot this year is the #1 Injerto) and Finca Huixoc in the past, but those are from the area of La Democracia. We had bought FTO lots from Asobagri Cooperative but those are from the Barillas area. Now it seems that the really exciting coffees I have been cupping this year are from the San Pedro Necta area, in the Chuchumatanes mountains to the north. I have fallen in love with 3 lots from the region this year, and think they have the character that was found in a Huixoc 5 years ago. And I am not new to Finca La Providencia: last year I had to bow out of a contract on this coffee when it arrived as a "good solid blender" but really lacked stand-alone character. This year is different, as can happen often in coffee when the capricious forces of local climate combine to make one crop a notch above the previous. The dry fragrance has a sweet raisiny smell, with winey fruit hints. Add water and the cup has a spicy, almost pungent note (clove, black pepper), but the dried fruit sweetness remains. The same character from the wet aroma comes through strong in the cup: dark, dried fruit, spice, sweetness. And it does not need to be roasted too much to reveal these brooding spice and fruit notes. I found that stopping the roast just after 1st crack concluded had peak balance between the fruits and the roast sweetness.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.6
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.6
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.7
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 3.4
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.8
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 0 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium intensity / unique fruited character, spice accents  
add 50 50 Roast: City + is where you will experience the most here, FC is nice and bittersweet too.
Score (Max. 100) 86.7 Compare to: Has character of high grown Bourbon Guatemala, although I can't verify the Bourbon content of the lot.
Guatemala Quiche - La Perla Estate
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB, Strictly Hard Bean Region: Quiche Mark: La Perla Estate
Processing: Wet-Processed Crop: Oct 2006 Arrival Appearance: .8 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: Typica, Bourbon
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.5 Notes: La Perla is a fairly large coffee estate in Quiche, and has a rather controversial past. We offered this coffee once before, a long time ago. I "rediscovered" the coffee as a judge at the 2006 Guatemala Cup of Excellence (#4 position - but this is not the CoE lot we are offering here though), but I was unaware of what a central place the farm played in the civil unrest of the 80's in Guatemala (Quiche was at the center of the conflict). While it is tough to decide, based on the information out there online, what the facts are, the owner of the farm was basically assassinated by a Mayan woman in the course of the conflict, and the farm served as a stronghold for fighting Indian guerillas in the area. Later, as part of reconciliation, a good chunk of the farm land was given back to the community, and is now operated as an employee-owned enterprise. It makes me realize how the coffee trade, simply because it is a form of rural employment with (in the case of Guatemala) estate owners of a richer class who often live in away from the farm, it is a flash point for class conflict. It's not a comforting thing to think about while you sip coffee, but it is the reality, no matter what your opinions or politics. I will try to learn more about Quiche and La Perla, for my part. Anyway, this review is about the cup of coffee: From the start, I thought that this coffee is to Guatemala what La Minita or La Magnolia is to Costa Rica; sweet, delicate, clean, nuanced … all the classical qualities of a Central. Being "classic" doesn't make it easy to disect the flavor profile: it is one of those "coffee-flavored coffees", an inscrutabley balanced cup that can, at first, leave me pleased but without a word to explain exactly why!!! The fragrance is florally sweet, outlined with a bit of hazelnut (City+ roast) and butter. I could write and emphatic "ditto" for the wet aroma, which is unique in itself because usually there is a shift from dry aromatic qualities to wet. But it is very much "sweet, floral, nut, and soft creamy sweetness (i.e. fresh butter). Cup flavors are mild and balanced, with City roast having the softest cup flavors, floral, pecan nut, medium body, clean disappearing aftertaste with a sage herbal suggestion. It's a gentle coffee. I guess that's why I like the heavier roast on this a bit more; a hearty, thicker and sharper flavor profile emerges. There is a really nice nut/dark cocoa aspect coming on at FC-to-FC+ roast.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.6
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.5
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.4
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 3.2
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.4
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 0 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild (City roast) to Medium (FC roast) intensity / tangy cocoa-nut roast notes  
add 50 50 Roast: While I appreciate the sweet mild balance of the City roast, I like the roast character of the FC/FC+ roast more.
Score (Max. 100) 85.6 Compare to: Light roasts are comparable to Classic Central American coffees, clean, sweet, mild and balanced. Darker roasts have a nice cocoa bite to them.
Guatemala FTO Quiche - Maya Ixil
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB, Strictly Hard Bean Region: El Quiche Department Mark: Fair Trade and Organic Certified
Processing: Wet-Processed Crop: Sept 2006 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: Typica, Pache, Caturra, Catuai
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.3 Notes: Maya Ixil coffee cooperative is in the mountains of the tropical Ixcan region in the department of Quiche, Guatemala. It's an interesting region in Guatemala, where there are more small-holder farms than the large estate-oriented coffee cultures of Fraijanes, Antigua, or parts of Huehuetenango. And the farmers in the area are of ethnic Quiche Maya ancestry, maintaining a traditional way of life for the most part. The problem is that quality coffee requires some degree of training to avoid defects associated with old style traditional agronomy (for example, picking only ripe cherry, managing a good tree-to-hectare ratio, or avoiding the old practice of returning the mill water, laden with fermented coffee residue, to the streams.) In 1998, a group began to organize to form this coop and succeeded in gaining organic certification: It meant not only an improvement of the quality of life for the farmers, but also improvements for the environment through improved cultivation practices. Their coffee is grown under native shade trees, preserving local fruit and animal species. In 2004, Maya Ixil was certified Fair Trade coffee. Today, more than 124 Quiche Maya families represent Maya Ixil coffee cooperative and are gaining greater opportunities for business growth and community developments. The dry fragrance has a hazelnut-to-almond character at City roast, and is sweet with mild chocolate (reminds me of Ghiradelli chocolate). There's a slightly rustic side to the sweetness of the wet aroma: it smells a bit like warm gingerbread and molasses. In cupping, when I break the cup there is a rush of fruit, papaya, melon. This is a distinct coffee from our other Guatemala offering for it's milder acidity, soft milk chocolate character, and clean fruited secondary flavors. I find papaya, passion fruit, and pineapple lurking in the background on this cup, with a slightly almond tone in the City+ roast and more chocolate at Full City.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.6
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.3
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.6
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 3.6
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.5
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 0 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium intensity / Balanced, lower toned, nuts and chocolate  
add 50 50 Roast: City + (once again) is where you will experience the most here, but I liked the more chocolaty roast taste at FC and FC+ too.
Score (Max. 100) 85.9 Compare to: Milder Central profile, not such a high-toned acidity as other Guatemala coffees. I felt like brewing this a bit strong benefited the cup.
Guatemala "Blue Quetzal" Bourbon
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB, Strictly Hard Bean Region: Chimeltenango Mark: Blue Quetzal
Processing: Wet-Processed Crop: November 2006 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: 100% Bourbon Cultivar
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.8 Notes: I received the sample from an importer who is the one who truly "discovered" this lot ... I did little but to immediately recognize that I had a gem of a coffee in front of me, and buy up all that I possibly could (given that I need another Guatemala offering like I need to catch the flu - we are overloaded!) I can't resist a good coffee, even when it makes no "business sense." And I can't even tell you much about the coffee since it is from small farms, and had to be combined to form a lot big enough to export (with this important distinction: the small farms were pure Bourbon cultivar, and they were cupped before combining). But it was the cup, and watching this beautiful coffee roast, that got me all worked up: I found this coffee has a very wide range of roasts that have great results, from a light City roast through Full City +. It's a very high-grown, dense seed (I think Bourbon cultivar also has greater density than other types, which greatly improve the way the coffee absorbs and distributes heat in the roast chamber). You will notice a very wrinkled surface appearance after first crack ends, and a relatively dark surface color given the degree of roast at that stage. The lighter roasts have a punctuated fruitiness to them, bright tannic grape, floral aromatics, and sweet malt syrup roast taste. I really enjoyed watching this coffee take on a bit more color, passing into the Full City range, but not into 2nd crack at all. Here there is a unique balance between chocolate and raisin sweetness, with clove spice hints, concord grape, and a floral flavor (I know, we don't eat/drink flowers for the most part, but the finish has a strong floral, almost rose-like aspect to it, like a potpourri). Anyway, as a cupper, this coffee exudes immense cup quality, as a roaster you can see that dense, tight-fisted little bean take on heat and color just beautifully, and as a guy who just likes a great cup of coffee, this is one I take home on the weekend.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.8
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.7
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 9
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 3.2
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 9.2
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 1 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium intensity / beautiful roast character and seed density, complex cup  
add 50 50 Roast: City - Full City to FC+ - I like the lighter roast too but they have a fairly rugged surface texture to the seed. This coffee really performs well with a huge range of roast, C to FC+, even light Vienna
Score (Max. 100) 88.7 Compare to: Bourbon Guatemala - classic cup profile, great complexity.
Guatemala Cup of Excellence #1 -El Injerto
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB, Strictly Hard Bean Region: Huehuetenango, La Libertad area Mark: Cup of Excellence 2006 1st place, Finca El Injerto
Processing: Wet-Processed Crop: September 2006 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: 100% Bourbon
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 4 Notes: This lot was prepared only from the traditional Bourbon cultivar planted at the well-known farm El Injerto. This is a farm I visited from back around 7 years ago, and whose coffee we have offered in some seasons. El Injerto means "The Graft" (aka agricultural grafting) and is owned by Arturo Aguirre Escobar, representing the third generation of his family. He has worked the farm since 1956. Most of the coffee is planted between 1500 and 2000 meters, on a farm that dedicates a huge portion of its total land to an uncut old-growth forest. I know this farm: In fact I remember offering the pure Bourbon coffee in the past, but man, it didn't cup like this. I was a judge at the 2006 Guatemala Cup of Excellence and this coffee stood out in a dramatic fashion from the other lots. The aromatics gave it away from the start: intensely sweet fragrance from the dry grounds, golden raisins, sweet malt syrup. A group of us from the US, Europe and Japan got together and decided we had to get this lot, at any price. Well, it sold for more than 4x the number 2 lot in the competition, but I still think we did well. After all, when a coffee is $30 a lb. each cup still costs well under $1 each! Anyway, lets get off the subject of home economics ... this is a special lot and deserves special attention for it's cup quality. As with other top coffees we have bought this year, we had the shipment flown out from Guatemala to our warehouse, to be assured that nothing went wrong with the transportation. And as I cup it here, it still rings all the same bells it did on the competition cupping table. I kept my roasts on the lighter side, as I always do with cupping, and is my preference for brewing too. This City roast does not have an even surface appearance, still rather wrinkly, but the fragrance is so much more lively than the FC roast I did. Wet aromatics are again intensely sweet: lightly caramelized sugars, and maple syrup on buttermilk pancakes (seriously!). When it comes to cup flavors, sweetness strikes first, but also a strong floral, jasmine flavor. The acidity is what I would call "refined", clean and well defined. There are fruits (citrus: meyer lemon), tropical fruit, some peach skins, and once again golden raisin. There's a touch of light cocoa in the finish, a bit of tea-like dryness, but for me the jasmine comes through strong. The grain sweetness I get (malt syrup too) shift to brown sugar with a little more roast (City+) and towards cocoa at Full City. I don't recommend darker than that ... this is a rare and expensive coffee; why buy it just to get roasty flavors in the cup? This entire lot represents 1 day of picking from one particular plot at El Injerto. The total lot was just 16 bags, and we secured just 1/4 of that. So the limit here is 1 lb. so we can spread this stuff around!
Wet Aroma (1-5) 4.5
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 9.4
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 9
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 3.2
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 9.2
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 2 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium-to-bold intensity / Extraordinary aromatics, sweetness, complexity.  
add 50 50 Roast: City - City + (once again) is where you will experience the most here, and what the review comments are based upon
Score (Max. 100) 91.3 Compare to: Well, it’s the number 1 coffee from the CoE, what's to compare it to? It had an average score of well over 90 points from over twenty international cupping jurors.
Guatemala Antigua Peaberry "Maria Especial"
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB Region: Antigua Mark: Prepared for Sweet Maria's
Processing: Wet Process Crop: June 2006 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, Peaberry screen Varietal: Guatemala bronze-tipped Typica
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.4 Notes: Another coffee we secured by special arrangement, and a Guatemala Antigua that really cups like one! As some who follow the offering carefully will know, it is not often we offer an Antigua coffee, surprising to some since you might call it the "Grandpa" of specialty coffee. To my mind, Antigua was the first region-specific coffee offered on the burgeoning Specialty Coffee market back in the '70s. It was certainly the first one consumers started asking for by name. The valley around the town of Antigua, the original capital city of Guatemala and less than an hour from the new capital Guatemala City, was ideal for coffee. It was widely planted as far back as the 1880s by mostly German immigrants, and had broad, fertile, well-draining volcanic soils since it was the watershed for the famous Agua and Fuego volcanoes. But as Antigua gained a reputation, and the price was driven up, the quality dropped, and much coffee sold as Antigua was not truly from this limited area (sometimes Acatenango, sometimes Fraijanes, sometimes from Honduras!) Because Antigua is an "old school" specialty coffee, it is an archetype of flavor, in a sense. This is what we call "classic" cup profile: clean, aromatic, balance, good bittersweet coffee flavor. That doesn't make it the most "exciting" cup in the world, by today's standards. But it is the epitome of the classic specialty coffee cup profile, and this special Peaberry lot truly has that correct Antigua character that is increasingly rare. The dry fragrance has cocoa and vanilla; add water and the wet aromatics sweeten up a bit, with noticeable caramel sweetness and hints of spiciness (cinnamon). Cup flavors are clean, balanced and (it sounds ridiculous to say) very "coffee-like," meaning archetypal coffee bittersweets. The cup flavors feature soft sweet tones and avery impressive creamy body (more so that any Antigua I have cupped in recent years). There's traces of citrus (sweet orange) in the finish and aftertaste, but I keep dwelling of the clean clear balance this cup has ... just so darn ...uh, likable! So why is this lot "Maria Especial"? Because we basically had a very good cupper (who I cannot name, sorry!) pick and choose through all of the peaberry lots coming into the respected Pastores mill in Antigua to create this coffee. Peaberry is a small percentage of the harvest, and each farm might not have enough to offer as a distinct exportable lot. So essentially our hired gun "cherry-picked" the best of the best to create a lot just for us.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.5
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.4
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.6
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 3.8
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.4
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 1 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium intensity / Classic Antigua profile with exceptional body
add 50 50 Roast: Full City - you can get the most of the bittersweetness at the verge of 2nd crack
Score (Max. 100) 87.0 Compare to: Archetypal Antigua cup character. For this, a +1 correction!
Guatemala San Marcos -Finca Maria Elisa
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB Region: San Marcos Mark: Finca Maria Elisa
Processing: Wet-Process Crop: June 2006 Arrival Appearance: .4 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: Bourbon, Old-Growth
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.8 Notes: Finca Maria Elisa is basically an antique working farm. It is in the San Marcos region of Guatemala, very, very close to the Mexico border, and has been a family-owned farm for many years. The problem is this; as coffee prices fell several years ago, no money was available to reinvest in the farm. But a farm like this is built upon the old, sustainable model of coffee farming; old-growth Typica and Bourbon cultivars with massively thick trunks are planted under a healthy cover of shade trees. The mill is a traditional wet-process layout; everything about this farm is as one might find it 50 years ago. In other words, it is a coffee-producing system that doesn't require technological improvemnts or fertilizer/herbicidal inputs to function. It is by definition, sustainable. The problem with the lack of improvements in this farm are more of the physical nature: the out-buildings are being destroyed by termites, the walls are paper thin. When a coffee broker friend of ours tried to walk up stairs to the loft in the mill, the farm manager warned him off: you might come down in a heap of rotted , termite-holed wood. Now the farm is selling the coffee into a better market that recognizes the cup quality of this classic flavor profile, and the premium price we are paying should go for some lumber, or at least some bondo! Anyway, this is a beautiful cup: The fragrance from the dry grounds is very sweet! It is floral (much like the bloom of the coffee tree itself) and fruited. The wet fragrance shifts to a mildly chocolate aromatic base with sugar cane sweetness. Cup flavors are very mild and the aftertaste is rather short; the appeal of this cup is its fine aromatics, and delicate, clean personality. The body is light but has a creamy texture. The cup has a clean coffee cherry fruit quality and honey sweetness (orange blossom honey). This is the classic, clean, Central American cup, refined, fragile, and seductive. Don't expect flavors to leap out and clobber you over the head. Rather, this is a coffee you can approach, hold on the palate, consider, enjoy.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 4
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.5
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8
Body - Movement (1-5) 3
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 1 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild intensity/excellent sweet aromatics  
add 50 50 Roast: City+ for the best of this delicate cup
Score (Max. 100) 86.3 Compare to: Classic clean-cup Central with mild flavors and superior aromatics
Guatemala Huehue FTO -Asasapne Coop
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB, Strictly Hard Bean Region: North Huehuetenango, San Pedro Necta Mark: Asasapne Cooperative, Fair Trade and Organic Certified
Processing: Wet-Processed Crop: August 2006 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: Bourbon, Typica
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.4 Notes: This coffee comes from the very north of Huehuetenango state in Guatemala, near the border with Chiapas, Mexico. ASASAPNE is the name of the cooperative, (another incredibly long acronym that coffee coops are known for). The coop is comprised of growers from 10 different communities radiating out from the town of San Pedro Necta. There are 260 growers in the cooperative, with only 45 of them as certified organic at this point which means a they do not produce much Organic: 2 of the 10 communities are certified organic - Rio Ocho and Agua Blanca. These 2 areas are over 1400 meters, and all coffee from these 2 communities is Bourbon and Tipica. It might explain that, when I cupped the conventional non-organic lots vs. the organic, I found solid cup character in the former and really exceptional cup character in the organic. The aromatics are lively and floral, qualities I look for in great Huehuetenango coffees. The cup flavors are quite crisp, but not simply acidic. It is a bright coffee as al, great Guats should be, but not out of proportion with cup flavor, body, and aftertaste. There's a citric accent in the cup (tangerine, mandarin). Behind this, there's a very unique sweet cedar note, accented with vanilla bean and caramel sauce. I have trouble defining it satisfactorily; it's one of these compound flavor attributes, combined/blended tastes that are a bit difficult to separate and describe. I also get warming spice aromatics in the brewed cup as it cools (cinnamon stick, mulling spice). And the finish has a good lingering bittersweet quality. It's a surprising cup, with more complex character than a first encounter, that initial smell and sip, might indicate. As it cools the cup becomes brighter and a citrus sweetness lingers on the tongue. I find it takes a wide roast range: although the comments above are for a City+ roast I enjoyed FC and FC+ too, which were perhaps less complex but more pronouncedly tangy and bittersweet.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.6
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 9
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.7
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 3
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.7
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 1 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium intensity / delicate but complex flavors, great acidity  
add 50 50 Roast: City + (once again) is where you will experience the most complex flavors and brightness. FC and FC+ work well too.
Score (Max. 100) 87.4 Compare to: Classic bright Central, great HueHuetenango.
Guatemala Huehuetenango WP Decaf
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB Region: Huehuetenango Mark: MAM 
Processing: WP Decaf, Wet Process Crop: December 2005 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 17 screen Varietal: Typica, Caturra, Catuai
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3 Notes: The advantage of knowing exactly what coffee goes into your decaf is great, and surprisingly rare because a lot of decafs are sold simply with an origin name, and not even a regional designation to boot. But with this Guatemalan we know the exact region (Huehuetenango) and cup quality prior to decaffeination, quite nice! More remarkable is the cup after decaffeinating though, because this bright, lively character survived the orderal intact. I always expect some loss in acidity and the top end of the cup flavors after the decaf process. With the lots sent to Swiss Water I expected very dramatic losses. But this new process (similar to SWP but performed in Mexico at the Cafiver facility) is proving out with good results. They call it Mountain Water Process or something, and I am refering to it simply as Water Process (WP). And it is a non-contact, non-chemical water process decaf to boot. It has a backdrop of almond in the roast taste to balance out the cup. It is a lighter-bodied cup with short, pleasant aftertaste. But it's all about the bright notes in the cup, and this one has them. Simply incredible decaf for an indirect-contact, non-chemical decaf method.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.3
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.7
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.4
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 3.0
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.5
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 0 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild intensity / Bright, high-toned Guatemala character
add 50 50 Roast: I had very good roasts at City+ up to Full City+. Remember roast times, and roast color are different with decafs, and a normal pause between 1st and 2nd crack may not exist. The lack of chaff changes the way the coffee behaves in air roasters too.
Score (Max. 100) 84.9 Compare to: A bright Guatemalan SHB (Strictly Hard Bean) coffee
Guatemala Coban FTO Maragogype
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB Region: Sierra de las Minas, Coban Mark: Sierra de Las Minas Fair Trade, Organic
Processing: Wet-Process Crop: April 2006 Arrival Appearance: .8 d/300gr, 19+ Screen Varietal: 100% Maragogype (Elephant Bean)
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.2 Notes: This coffee originates from the Coban state, Guatemala. This is an organic, fair trade project coffee from ForesTrade de Guatemala , who launched an organic and Fair Trade coffee project in the buffer zone of Guatemala’s Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve. Our project partners with two coffee producer associations APROCOM and APODIP. APROCOM and APODIP include over 1,200 micro producers of Mayan Q’eqchi and Poqomchí ethnicities, who live in remote mountain villages within a cloud forest. ForesTrade has actively helped these farmers develop a quality coffee program, receive organic and Fair Trade certification and commercialize their product for the specialty coffee market. Prior to our presence in these communities, these farmers sold their semi-dried parchment to local middle-men at far below the market prices. The benefits of organizing a co-op are not only for more equity in selling coffee; in this case it results in shared knowledge, access to outside agronomical expertiese, and improved cup quality. This coffee is not so dynamic in the dry fragrance and wet aroma, but the cup flavors are where it's uniqueness can be sensed. This coffee has mild fruited notes, an excellent milk chocolate roast taste, soft-full body, and a one-of-a-kind smokey flavor that derives from the origin flavors of the coffee ... not from roast. And this is not some sort of ashtray smokiness, but a clean, distinct and very pleasant flavor quality. The body is notable too, more dense than most Guatemalan coffees. Together with a tangible, moderate acidity, the cup has great balance and proportion. Remember that these huge Maragogype (also spelled Maragogipe_ beans will not move as readily in a hot airstream of a home roaster as lighter, smaller coffee seeds. It is wise to back off on the batch size by 20% or so, to aid in good bean agitation and avoid scorching or tipping the beans in roasting.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.4
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.3
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.6
Body - Movement (1-5) 3.5
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.7
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 1 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium intensity (brewed) / smokey, milk chocolate, balance
add 50 50 Roast: For brewed coffee I have best results at City + roast, but enjoyed the FC to FC+ roasts too.
Score (Max. 100) 86.7 Compare to: A unique profile among Central American coffees, higher body than most Guats, and that unique smokey note.
Guatemala Huehuetenango -La Maravilla Estate
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB Region: Huehuetenango, La Democracia area Mark: La Maravilla Estate
Processing: Wet Processed Crop: Sept 2005 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: Bourbon, Catuaí, Caturra, Typica y Pache
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.5 Notes: La Maravilla is a farm we have not carried before, but Huehuetenango is a coffee-growing region of Northern Guatemala that we can't get enough of! Huehue. is still under appreciated for the range of cup characters, usually with a more fruited profile than the Antiguas. And within Hue hue there are many subregions with distinct cup profiles. La Democracia is one of them, and that is where both El Injerto and La Maravilla are situated. When I received this sample it was more of a burden than a blessing: we had already bought all the mid-crop Guatemalans I needed for the year and I didn't want to re-roast all the Guat.s for a comparative cupping. But I did and I am glad. This cup is bright, and if that is not apparent at first, you will realize the high acidity as the cup cools. This gives it a real lively cup character, tangy and in lighter roasts the fruitiness is like barely ripe mango. Behind the brightness and fruit is an almondy nuttiness with a bit of not-too-sweet Dutch cocoa. It sounds like an odd combination of flavors but somehow it spins itself into a really cohesive taste profile. I all, this is not a sweet cup and leaves me with a chocolate aftertaste as if I had tasted unsweetened cocoa powder. (I remember what a shock it was as a kid to learn that the Hershey's cocoa powder my mom kept in the kitchen was not like like eating a package of instant cocoa, like Swiss Miss.) But despite childhood trauma, this time the unsweetened cocoa taste comes off as a good thing! This coffee is not screened for seed size as much as other Guat.s, but the presence of some small seeds should not be an issue, even in the perforated drum roasters.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.7
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.7
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.5
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 2.8
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.6
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 1 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild-medium intensity /crisp , clean cup  
add 50 50 Roast: This can take a wide range between City + and Full City ++, a bit into 2nd crack. The character really holds up throughout the roast range, and good chocolate notes develop a bit into 2nd with some muting of the fruit and acids.
Score (Max. 100) 86.8 Compare to: A balanced Huehuetenango, crisp and clean Classic cup profile.
Guatemala Acatenango Cooperative
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB Region: Acatenango, Chimaltenango Mark: Fedecocagua, Coop Acatenango, Q-Auction lot
Processing: Wet Processed Crop: September 2005 Arrival Appearance: .2 d/300gr, 17-18 Screen Varietal: Bourbon, Catuaí, Caturra, Típica and Pache
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.5 Notes: Acatenango is not a name you hear often when speaking of Guatemalan coffee. Antigua, sure (overrated?) Huehuetenango, definitely (lots of great farms). Fraijanes, Atitlan, sometimes some nice lots. But Acatenango is like the little scruffy cousin not invited to the family reunion. That's unfair, because this district has great altitude (this coffee is grown at 1400-1800 meters), a deep coffee-growing tradition, volcanic soils, and the potential for greatness. Now, how many times can you say Fedecocagua in a row? Dying to know, the full name is Federación de Cooperativas Agrícolas de Productores de Café de Guatemala. Coop Acatenango is one of their member coops, and this lot was one of the 8 winning lots in the 2005 Q-Auction competition. This cooperative lot, assembled from smallholder farms in the region by Fedecocagua coop is an excellent example of that shimmering bright cup quality that distinguishes this region from the sometimes flat, overprice Antiguas. Overall, it's a lightbodied cup with a fine, prickly acidity, delicate; I found a lot of subtle flavors in this cup so don't misread all these flavor descriptors to mean high intensity. Red them as meaning "good nuances and subtleties." Okay, here's the gist: Caramel and seseme sweetness in the dry fragrance, with jasmine tea in the wet aroma; this leads into flavors of pear, hibiscus, jasmine, and sweet light syrup, passing into aftertastes of almond oil with a slight drying finish. Remember though ... mild cup, but just lots of neat flavors emerging as the cup cools.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.5
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.8
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.5
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 2.9
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.6
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 1 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild intensity /crisp tingly acidity and subtle complexity  
add 50 50 Roast: City+ . Darker roast ruin the delicate cup qualities
Score (Max. 100) 86.8 Compare to: Unique cup character that is distinct from the adjacent Antigua region
Guatemala Antigua Peaberry "Especial"
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB Region: Antigua Mark: Prepared for Sweet Maria's
Processing: Wet Process Crop: Late June 2005 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, Peaberry screen Varietal: Typica
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.4 Notes: Another coffee we secured by special arangement, and a Guatemala Antigua that really cups like one! As some who follow the offering carefully will know, it is not often we offer an Antigua coffee, surprising to some since you might call it the "Grandpa" of specialty coffee. To my mind, Antigua was the first region-specific coffee offered on the burgeoning Specialty Coffee market back in the '70s. It was certianly the first one consumers started asking for by name. The valley around the town of Antigua, the original capital city of Guatemala and less than an hour from the new capital Guatemala City, was ideal for coffee. It was widely planted as far back as the 1880s by mostly German immigrants, and had borad, fertile, well-draining volcanic soils since it was the watershed for the facmouas Agua and Fuego volcanoes. But as Antigua gained a reputation, and the price was driven up, the quality dropped, and much coffee sold as Antigua was not truly from this limited area (sometimes Acatenango, sometimes Fraijanes, sometimes from Honduras!) Because Antigua is an "old school" specialty coffee, it is an arechtype of flavor, in a sense. This is what we call "classic" cup profile: clean, aromatic, good bittersweet coffee flavor. That doesn't make it the most "exciting" cup in the world, by todays standards. But it is the epitome of the classic specialty coffee cup profile, and this special Peaberry lot truly has that correct Antigua character that is increasingly rare. The dry fragrance has cocoa vanilla, hazelnut; add water and the wet aromatics sweeten up a bit, with noticeable spiciness (clove-allspice). Cup flavors are clean, balanced and (it sounds ridiculous to say) very "coffee-like," meaning archetypal coffee bittersweets. The cup flavors feature soft chocolate tones and avery impressive buttery body (moreso that any Antigua I have cupped in recent years). There's traces of tobacco in the finish, with a bit of mint. So why is this lot "Especial"? Because we basically had a very good cupper (who I cannot nam, sorry!) pick and choose through all of the peaberry lots coming into the respected Pastores mill in Antigua to create this coffee. Peaberry is a small percentage of the harvest, and each farm might not have enough to offer as a distinct exportable lot. So essentially our hired gun "cherry-picked" the best of the best to create a lot just for us.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.3
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.4
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.4
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 4
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.6
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 1 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Medium intensity / Classic Antigua profile with exceptional body
add 50 50 Roast: Full City - you can get the most of the bittersweetness at the verge of 2nd crack
Score (Max. 100) 87.1 Compare to: Archetypal Antigua cup character. For this, a +1 correction!
Guatemala Huehuetenango -El Injerto
Country: Guatemala Grade: SHB Region: La Libertad area, Huehuetenango Mark: Finca El Injerto
Processing: Wet-processed Crop: October 2005 Arrival Appearance: 0 d/300gr, 17-18+ Screen Varietal: Bourbon, Caturra, Red Catuai
Dry Fragrance (1-5) 3.3 Notes: Once again Finca El Injerto has that solid, classic quality cup character this year, as it did in 2003. Injerto, in a way, reminds me of what an Antigua should be, but 9 out of 10 times is not. Injerto has really has the structure, the classic Guatemala character, the acidity, that Antigua rarely has now. Ironic that a very nice Antigua doesn't come from there ...but then again brokers are talking about fraud in the high-priced Antigua region anyway (shipping in Acatenango and Fraijanes and selling them as Antigua). A while back we stocked the 100% Bourbon coffee from Injerto, meaning that all the trees are of the coffea arabica var. bourbon that was a spontaneous mutation of the arabica species first brought to the New World. (Incidentally, it was brought by the French to Reunion Island which was then called Bourbon). The seed is small and rounded, the trees grow in a way that is great for quality but not as sun-tolerant or easy to pick as other modern hybrids. I visited the farm and had a discussed the merits of single-Varietal coffees with Sr. Aguierre, owner and agronomist at El Injerto. This year you will see about 40% Bourbon. Why? Because the coffee of mixed cultivars cupped better. plain and simple. Just as a vineyard will blend grapes grown from different parts of the farm, a coffee Finca that grows each cultivar separately can then blend the different arabica types in a controlled way to produce the best cup. I know of few farms that grow in this way ...only El Injerto, Mesa de los Santos and the Lerida Estate come to mind. The cup this year is exemplary, a solid, well-structured, shimmering bright profile ... exactly what a great Huehuetenango should be, and what El Injerto embodies when it is a good year. This is it; assertive brightness, classic balance between sweetness, acidity, and a hint of salt (seriously, it is not a bad thing!) and bittersweet ... in other words, this cup has elements of all 4 basic primary flavor groups. The roast tastes range from toasted malt at the City roast I cupped, to pralines at City+, to tangy bittersweet chocolate hints at my Full City roast. There are subtle citric hints, green herbal qualities in the finish, and aforementioned bittersweets striking the centerline of the tongue in the long aftertaste. Lighter roasts have sweet malt caramel roast taste. Given that our other solid Huehue. performer (Huixoc) was a "no-show" in terms of cup character, lordy I was thrilled to cup this great El Injerto this year! This October arrival is a late-crop arrival that was stored at the farm, in parchment , at altitude, to preserve the cup character for later in the crop year.
Wet Aroma (1-5) 3.3
Brightness - Acidity (1-10) 8.8
Flavor - Depth (1-10) 8.4
Body - Mouthfeel (1-5) 3.6
Finish - Aftertaste (1-10) 8.5
Cupper's Correction (1-5) 0 Intensity/Prime Attribute: Mild to Medium intensity / Classic profile, "clean cup"
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