This very special micro-lot comes from a tiny 4.5-hectare farm located near the village of Concepción Zacuapa in Guatemala’s Santa Rosa department. It was produced by Darwin Estuardo Fabián Estrada.

Darwin is a fifth-generation coffee producer. His family’s history in coffee dates back to 1899 when his family moved to Santa Rosa de Lima and established a large 154-hectare farm called Finca El Chicón. Bonifacio Fabián, Darwin’s father, inherited a small piece of this farm called El Calagual, named after the abundant native trees in the area.

For many years Bonifacio sold his coffee as cherry to local markets at commercial prices. However, his son saw the potential in the farm after he began studying agronomy at university, specialising in coffee production. Darwin realised very quickly that his family’s farm had all the right conditions to produce exceptional coffee, with the right varieties planted, a high elevation and unique microclimate. After much badgering, he convinced his father to let him try to harvest and process some coffee as part of his thesis for university. The cup results were excellent, and helped Darwin demonstrate the potential of his farm to his father.

The region is known for producing much of the country’s commercial-grade coffee, but the range of micro-climates and rich, volcanic soils found in Santa Rosa offer great potential for specialty-grade coffee production. This is evident from the 2022 Cup of Excellence results, when 5 coffees from Santa Rosa were awarded for the first time in the competition’s history.

As owner Darwin explains, the processing of his coffee requires a few stages, to ensure the highest cup quality possible. The first stage is the picking, when the team at Calagual only pick coffee at 25-26° Brix. The Pache variety easily achieves this metric, as it has a naturally high concentration of sugars.

Once the coffee is picked, the second stage of the processing is 36 hours of aerobic fermentation in cherry form. This is done using permeable nylon sacks, which keeps coffee stable by matching its internal temperature with that of the surrounding environment. At this stage, the team is very careful to place the sacks filled with cherries in a cool, dry place to protect them from the elements, as high temperatures can accelerate fermentation and introduce undesirable flavours.

The third stage is the laying of the cherries on El Calagual’s drying beds. When laying cherries out, the team carefully sort through them to remove any unripe or damaged fruit – only then does the drying finally begin. Darwin has chosen beds over cement patios to dry his coffee, as patios retain too much heat during the day and can affect the final cup. Raised drying beds have the benefit of allowing air to flow freely over and under the cherries, keeping them cool as they dry.

Cherries are left to dry for approximately 8 days before Darwin and his team begins to turn them by hand. They prefer to keep clusters of cherries together at this stage, to homogenise the drying process. Cherries take around 24 days to reach the desired moisture level, as Darwin believes the flavours in the cup benefit from a longer and slower drying time.