KlatchRoasting.com - Why I Travel To Origin, Part 2

Why I Travel To Origin, Part 2 - Guatemala and Costa Rica

Cerro Paldo Slopes

Next on the same trip we met up with Ricky Herrera and traveled through Guatemala. Ricky is the Central American connection for many small farmers. The trip in Guatemala was one of Research and Exploration. While we traveled to many areas, we settled in the historic city of Antigua. For those who have never been to Antigua or seen the pictures, it is a colonial town from the past. Each square block is like a fort. From the outside it is all walls and bland, but inside a beautiful oasis appears. Enough on the city, let's talk about the coffee.

The fincas of Antigua are all around (almost within) the city. In its recent history, Antigua has been passed over as Hue Hue Tenango and other growing areas have emerged, but we found beautiful farms everywhere. Based on our visit and cupping's, we hope to Bring Back Antigua. As we did not have time to cup and visit all the farms Ricky deals with, we decided to have samples shipped from many farms throughout Guatemala and Costa Rica to determine what would be the best coffee.

Once home, Ricky sent many samples and we cupped over several weeks various farms and varietals from both Guatemala and Costa Rica. From Costa Rica one coffee stood out on the cupping table, I called Ricky and he told me I have good taste, the one I liked was not only his favorite, but the 2007 1st place winner in the Costa Rican Cup of Excellence: Cerro Paldo . This comes from a micro-climate in the Terrazu region. Cupping notes include intense floral aroma, complex citric and fruit notes with rich sweet flavor and full body. It should complement our Juan Leon from the Central Valley and the famed La Minita Special (which just received 92 points from CoffeeReview.com).

From Guatemala we loved two coffees: Retiro de Quisayal San Martin and the Fancy Parramos el Bosque . We will experiment but expect to use one in our Espresso and offer the other as a varietal. Stay tuned

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