Guatemala Finca Rosma La Pila Filter Roast
Guatemala Finca Rosma Filter
Earlier this year I had a zoom meeting with Alejandro, Fredy’s son. It was such a great conversation and I didn’t feel I had earned my place in the room as we don’t buy large quantities of coffee from them. La Pila is our best Guatemalan coffee of 2024. I will spare you the analogies, but will share that we had some outstanding responses to this coffee last year.
If I filled stockings for Santa at Christmas, this would be my (coffee) tangerine. That probably sounded better in my head! Finca Rosma needs little introduction, to big fans of the Cup of Excellence and coffee at the top of its game in Guatemala. For me, it was a coffee that I couldn’t just leave, without buying! It just had everything that I look for when buying great coffee. Clarity, body, balance, and character. They are all here!
Top Trumps
Farm; Rosma
Lot: la Pila (The Pillar)
Size: 13.9 Hectares
Country: Guatemala
Owner: Dr. Fredy Morales
Nearest Town: San Pedro Necta
Region: Huehuetenango
Altitude: 1710-1880 Meters above sea level.
Varietals: Caturra and Red Bourbon
Process: Fully Washed and Dried undercover.
Roast: Filter Roast.
Cup Potential:🥣
Aromatics; Caramelised Orange | Body Silky | Acidity: 3D Orange|
Unlike most award-winning coffees, I have found La Pilar to be simple. When was uncomplicated a bad thing? On opening La Pilar is like a silky, caramelised 3D ripe orange. Sweet and juicy, a touch pithy, silky body with a subtle dry citrusy finish. As the heat dissipates the liquor cools and the acidity (that was already balanced) becomes sweet, like caramel, and deeply orangey, with a little dark chocolate on the finish. I use the word orange broadly, you may hone in on Tangerine, clementine, or Satsuma. Right the way down to cold, this maintains the crisp clean orange heart of this coffee.
Filter 60g per litre and up, for body.
Farm info
In 1963, Don Alejandro Morales bought this farm, with old bourbon and typica trees on it. In 1980, his son Dr. Fredy Morales inherited the farm and named it Rosma (short for Rosemary) after his wife. Back then, there was no road and everything was moved by mule. Alongside the community of Caserío Buena Vista, together they built a road to Rosma, benefitting the whole community. Bringing fresh spring water (5Km) to the farm was one of their greatest achievements. La Pilar (The Pillar) is of the water storage tank that is used to irrigate the farm.This has allowed them to run an ecological wet mill and also process great washed coffees.
Since 2010 Rosma has been highly placed in the Guatemala Cup of Excellence and been producing some incredible coffees. Here is what they wrote about it, at the Cup of Excellence in 2010
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