Ascending journey to quality Guatemala coffee: on the slopes of the mountains

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Guatemala coffee Finca El Socorro y Anexos, located in Palencia municipality, Guatemala department 
(Photo by Gabriela Cordón)

Quality in the cup is not just by coincidence. Those of you that have been delighted by a cup of coffee might know that a proper preparation for a good cup of coffee is not easy. Same goes for processing coffee.  All of Guatemala coffee, from lower to higher altitudes, is handpicked, washed in mills and sun dried or a combination of sun and dryers.

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View of El Socorro main house and mill. Most of the Guatemala coffee farms are located on the slopes and all of them  have their own wet mill. (Photo by Gabriela Cordón)

So what is the difference in the cup?  It is just about intensity and complexity of characteristics.  The higher the grown, the more intense characteristics you will find. Lower grown Guatemala coffee tends to have less acidity and body, cereal taste and less sweetness.

Higher grown, because a combination of volcanic soils, altitude and microclimate, that usually provide a combination of tropical and colder weather, allows Guatemala coffee plants to develop more of these characteristics.

More and more production of semi hard, hard and strictly hard beans is been produced nowadays, in altitudes from 1,000 to 1,800 MASL.

Color of the beans is less greenish and more on the bluish tones while grown on higher altitudes, more dense and compact, with a bit of silver membrane on the bean, because of its corrugation. They expand less when roasting. They are more fragrant, with more body and acidity.  All of these characteristics also offer more complexity with higher altitude. Bourbons, maragogype, pacamaras also provide finer characteristics in these altitudes, but less production.

But yet, the journey has not finished. Still we have to discover the Guatemala coffee that grows at the highest picks in the ascending journey to quality. Can it get better? You just can't imagine the gifts of nature when you are willing to climb all the way to the top.

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View of Guatemala coffee grown in the slopes of mountains in Palencia municipality

(Photo by Gabriela Cordón)