Calahual, Anaerobic Washed Caturra, Guatemala

About the coffee

Flavour description: An aroma of roasted almonds. Flavour notes of mandarine and brown sugar, and a sweet milk chocolate finish reminding of a Milky Way chocolate bar.

The coffee is round with a medium weight.

Category: Comfortable
Colour to describe flavour: Brown
Location: Palencia, Pie Del Cerro, east of Guatemalan City.
Producer: Guadalupe Alberto Reyes with family
Varietal: Caturra
Elevation: 1850 m.a.s.l
Processing: Anaerobic Washed
Harvest: June 2022
FOB paid to producer: 4.84USD per pound
Roasting Date: 16 Feb 2023

Brewing method: This is a well balanced and creamy coffee with delicate notes of clementine and orange zest. As all of our coffee, we think it works perfectly for all brewing method, however this coffee is more of a chocolaty and less of a fruity style so it is a safe card. Still light roasted, as always. It suits in an espresso and milk based espresso drinks but even holds up on its own as a chocolatey and crisp filter coffee.

This is a very first harvest from the this brand new farm, Calahual. The farm Calahual is located in the small town Palencia, east of Guatemala City. We have previously worked with a farm called El Limon, which is next door to this farm, and we first got to visit what come to be Calahual, long before it was bought and replanted by Alberto Reyes. On this farm, the Reyes family has a vision of building more exclusive and tasty varietals, but it will also is a journey to learn what is working in the micro climate. A journey that Joanna and Steve (co-owners at Drop Coffee) is highly involved in, talking about varietals and processes. The plants been taking four years to give a first commercial harvest. So this very coffee, coming to us this year, is the a very first crop ever from Calahual. 

The Palencia region is not famous for growing a lot of coffee but in the last decade, coffee development has started to increase significantly. The farm Calahual is owned by Guadalupe Alberto “Beto” Reyes, who used to be the Mayor of Palencia. Since 2012, Beto has been growing coffee in the area, to put Palencia on the map for coffee regions in Guatemala. Today the farm is very much a family business; Beto’s wife and sons also work on the farm and is running the business. Their care and devotion to each step of production has lead to continues improve on the wet-mill, in this way the coffee can be separated into different lots and harvests but control can also be kept of the overall quality. Which is very useful for the journey ahead for Calahual. We are excited to have the very first harvest here to roast for you, curious and excited for starting off this journey and putting Calahual coffee out to the world.