Guatemala Finca Villaure
Region: Huehuetenango
Altitude: 1650-1800 m.a.s.l.
Variety: Bourbon, Cattura
Process: washed
Tasting notes: Milk chocolate on the nose turns into fudgy dark chocolate on the palate along with juicy black cherry, a medium body and a sweet sweet finish
This coffee from Finca Villaure is perfect for a chilly winter’s day: rich and comforting with dark chocolate, delicious sweet black cherry and a sweet soft finish. Basically it’s black forest gateau in coffee form. And it’s caffeinated. And you can have it for breakfast.
It’s been a few years since we had a washed Guatemalan on our lineup so we’re happy to be roasting this gorgeous coffee, the second we’ve bought from producer Aurelio Villatoro through the specialty Guatemalan coffee importer Coffee Bird. Coffee Bird, famous for their denim coffee sacks, is an importer who works specifically with Guatemalan farmers. We’ve been buying coffee from them for over five years now and we’re excited to continue building that relationship with them and the farmers they work with.
Aurelio Villatoro combined his first and last names to name his farm - ‘Villa’ from his second name and ‘Aure’ from his first. The name is emblematic of Aurelio’s personal commitment to producing great coffee. He’s competed in the Cup of Excellence competition four times with coffee from Finca Villaure. He grew up on his father’s farm, Finca La Esperanza, which is now his, and last year his two sons joined the family business. They’ve been working on some experimental lots as well as starting to grow Geisha varietal.
Finca Villaure spans 31 hectares in Guatemala’s most famous coffee growing region, Huehuetenango. It’s the highest and driest region in the country and also one of the most remote, which can make getting coffee to port a challenge. There’s plentiful water in the mountains so most farmers, including Aurelio, process their own coffee. This lot is a traditional washed coffee. The cherries are picked between 6am and 3pm and then taken to the wet mill, where the coffee is pulped and transferred to fermentation tanks for 24 to 36 hours. Fermentation does the job of breaking down the last traces of pulp stuck to the bean and it can significantly influence the flavours in the final cup. Once fermentation is completed, the coffee is washed again and then dried on the patios for 10 to 20 days, until it reaches a specific moisture content so that it’s stable for shipping.
A note about packaging
Our coffee comes packaged in beautiful and hard wearing tins of 250g. It is important to keep those beans away from air and light (see our blog post about coffee storage) and we think tins are the very best way of keeping those guys fresh. If you order the 1kg refill size, the coffee is packaged in a fully recyclable plastic bag, see the link below for full information on the material and recycling.
Tins can of course be easily recycled (with other metals) but the very best and most environmentally conscious thing to do with them is to refill them. Find out how to refill or dispose of your Steampunk packaging HERE.