Guatemala Finca El Mirador One Roast
Guatemala Finca El Mirador
This year, once again we have been looking at better ways of buying coffee from Guatemala. Finca El Mirador comes from our supplier of 10 years or more, who just happens to have won a sustainability award from the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association). Earlier in the year, I spent way too much time tasting the many pre-shipment samples from Guatemala and I found myself just loving what this coffee does, above so many others. There is just balance in this crop of Mirador. If I had to describe this coffee simply, I would say this tastes a lot like a Kenya, without high acidity.
I feel I should also add a reality note here. This coffee is what I would classify as a character coffee, not a showboat. We have a few coffees coming later from Guatemala that are more boutique and coffees that I just had to buy, albeit in smaller quantities due to the price tag.
Farm: Finca El Mirador
Owner: Miguel Mendoza
Region: Huehuetenango
Town: San Antonio Huista
Processing: Wet Milling and sun-dried on patios
Size of Finca: 2.4 Hectares
Coffee produced: 6,500Kg (avg. Year)
Elevation: 1,550-1,620 mts
Rainfall:2,300 ml
Temperature: 16 – 25ºC
Water Supply: Natural Spring Water
Soil: Clay
Shade Trees: Chalun and Gravilea
Cup Potential:
|Aromatics: Currants & caramelised stonefruit| Body: Silky on cooling| Acidity: Soft/ low for region. Currants & vine fruits|
On opening, once the mouth melting heat dissipates, there is a sweet, soft white fruity acidity. This gently builds on a finish, creating a soft, blackcurrant-like fruit. The acidity is so laidback it is more tomato than the typical grapefruit that you might associate with blackcurrant. This is amongst the brown sugar sweetness.
On cooling, this dries a little bit like black tea, whilst still keeping that blackcurrant fruit, and a touch of cocoa on the finish.
Espresso
Due to the soft acidity, we had to give this coffee a go in espresso and it works well. I found that increasing the brew temperature made a big difference and softened the sours a little.
Brew Temp: 95C Milk-based drinks: >30 seconds is good. 16-18g into 32-36g (Basically 1:2)
9oz-Malteseres, with a whisp of fruit.
6oz- Blackcurrant depth, that solid not sour fruit in milk.
Espresso shots: same amount in (keep it simple, please) >36 seconds 40-45g out, more if you are going for bigger doses.
Savoury, blackcurrant, long dry citrus.
Farm Stuff
Miguel Mendoza is a second-generation coffee farmer. Having started farming at the age of 18 and later inheriting his father’s small plot, Miguel has gradually increased his farm size over the last 42 years.
The harvest is manual and is “selective” picking. This means many passes (pickings) during the harvest season. Every day of the harvest, coffee is driven for an hour and a half down to the Cajuil farmhouse at the old Rancho village, for processing. Coffee is de-pulped and put into fermentation tanks for 32-36 hours, ph dependent. The cherries are then sun-dried on traditional patios.
Miguel is already working with the next generation, using their input to improve the future of Mirador.
