Vanilla, spices, caramel, sugared cookie notes with licorice, caramel, fruity lychee and sugary sweetness, soft sparkly acidity with a buttery and silky mouthfeel.
Industry Review: The Coffee Attendant
Perfect choice for coffee drinkers suffering from digestive issues, or those that just prefer low acidic coffees with a higher level of antioxidants.
100% delicious!
Roast: Dark Medium
Processing: Washed Processed & Sun Dried on Patios
Altitude: 1550 - 1900 M.A.S.L.
Harvest: November - April
12 oz. Handcrafted Specialty Coffee
Las Nubes, or "Cloud", is a beautiful farm located on the slopes of Volcan Actenango, facing the city of Antigua. The farm became a coffee plantation in the early 1970’s and is run by the Echeverria family. Humidity at this farm is slightly higher than normal due to its proximity to the coast. This humidity causes coffee to ripen earlier, leading to a unique cupping profile. The coffee is milled in Finca Capetillo which is also owned and run by the family.
The highest grade of Guatemala coffee is Strictly Hard Bean (SHB). The regionally designated coffees (Antigua, Atitlan, Cobán, etc.) are tasted and approved as meeting flavor profile criteria established for these regions by ANACAFE, the Guatemalan coffee association. Those coffees that do not meet regional flavor profile criteria are only allowed to be sold as Strictly Hard Bean without regional designation.
Guatemala is Central America’s largest country and it has one of the largest indigenous populations in all Latin America. Known as the country of the “eternal spring” and also as the “soul of the earth”, the 23 Maya groups that spread throughout the country contribute to the rich, colorful culture of this amazing land. Guatemala originally comes from the Nahuatl language Quauhtemalan which means “place of many trees”. When the Spanish tried to pronounce the local name, it derived into the present name, Guatemala. Locals refer to their country dearly as “Guate.”
The highlands of Guatemala produce several of the world’s finest and most distinctive coffees. The mountain basin surrounding the austerely beautiful colonial city Guatemala Antigua produces the most distinguished of these highland coffees: Guatemala Antigua, a coffee that combines complex nuance (smoke, spice, flowers, occasionally chocolate) with acidity ranging from gently bright to austerely powerful. Fraijanes displays similar cup characteristics. Other Guatemala coffees, perhaps because they are more exposed to wet ocean weather than the mountain-protected Antigua basin, tend to display slightly softer, often less powerful, but equally complexly nuanced profiles. These softer Guatemalans include Cobán, admired for its fullish body and gentle, deep, rounded profile, Huehuetenango from the Caribbean-facing slopes of the central mountain range, and San Marcos coffees from the Pacific-facing slopes. Coffees from the basin surrounding Lake Atitlan in south central Guatemala typically offer the same complex nuance as Antiguas but are lighter in body and brighter in flavor.
Generally, Guatemala has preserved more of the traditional typica and bourbon varieties of arabica than many other Latin American growing countries, which may account for the generally superior complexity of the Guatemala cup. Most Guatemala coffee is grown in shade, ranging from rigorously managed shade on large farms to the serendipitous thickets of small growers.