Guatemala Atitlán Finca Patzibir Organic
For too long, we have overlooked the Lake Atitlán region in the department of Sololá, Guatemala. While Huehuetenango and Antigua tend to get all the attention, we occasionally like to feature a lesser-known area for your coffee drinking experience! This coffee comes to us from Finca Patzibir, which is managed by farmer Andres Fahsen. This multigenerational organic coffee estate can be found on the slopes of the volcano Volcán Tolimán, making the terroir perfect for cultivating coffee. What’s extra special is the rarity to find coffee from this single estate, making this a gem in our eyes.
Similar to coffees from the Huehuetenango region, you get a rich, full-bodied cup with a creamy to velvety texture. However, this cup exhibits a bit more crisp acidity along with just a touch more sweetness. Finally, we found this coffee slightly more balanced than it’s Huehuetenango neighbor. In the cup, we tasted rich dark chocolate, ripe plum, almond and just a hint of hibiscus. Finally, there’s a sweet, pleasant undertone throughout the cup that reminds us of vanilla cola. Mmm mmm, good to the last drop!
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: December 14th, 2022 Harvest year: 2022
Acidity & Brightness: Fairly bright and sweet
Balance & Finish: Balanced with a lingering, pleasant finish
Body & Texture: Big, rich body and creamy texture
Flavors: Dark chocolate, plum, vanilla cola and almond
Grade: SHB, grown at 1475-1600 masl
Certifications: Organic
Processing: Fully washed (wet) processed and sun dried
Grower: Andres Fahsen | Finca Patzibir
Region: San Lucas Tolimán, Sololá Department, Guatemala
Varieties: Bourbon, Catuai, Typica and Caturra
Recommended Roast Range: City+ to Vienna (light-medium to dark)
This coffee has excellent range and will take a wide variety of roasts well. We like it best right at Full Medium or between the end of 1st crack and just before 2nd crack begins. Lighter roasts will bring out a bit more lemony brightness at the expense of some chocolate tones and body. For more chocolate and almond focus, take it a touch darker. Darker roasts will also accent more of the rich body and texture.
Royal Coffee - "Andres Fahsen is the 5th generation of his family to manage the 56-hectare Finca Patzibir, an organic farm on the slopes of Volcán Tolimán, one of the most prominent natural features of the breathtaking Lake Atitlán. Patzibir sits in the municipality of San Lucas Tolimán, on the southern shore of the lake near the border between the departments of Sololá and Chimaltenango. Atitlán is considered a place of ancient importance and still home to some of Guatemala’s most visible indigenous communities. Atitlán’s surface sits at almost 1600 meters and is a volcanic basin surrounded by dramatically steep escarpments, and, including Tolimán, numerous volcanoes. Humidity along the escarpments is high throughout the year, where low-moving clouds blend into forests and filter the sunlight. As one might imagine, in the right hands the terroir here is exquisite for coffee. And a lot of coffee is grown in various communities around the lake, many of whom still successfully grow typica and bourbon, the first varieties planted in the area. However, it is rare to find coffee from single estates such as Patzibir.
Most of the coffee from Atitlán is smallholder grown and either cooperatively represented or bought by independent processors at competitive local rates. Patzibir requires some specific arrangements to succeed as an organic farm. First, the slopes are terraced and coffee is interplanted with different types of grass, which help retain moisture and nutrients in the soil that would otherwise wash away. The grass itself is also used to feed the coffee—once it’s cut the roots decompose and release their own stored nutrition to the roots of the coffee, as well as aerating the soil. The shade canopy is pruned to precision to allow optimal sunlight into the farm, and coffee trees are also generously spaced on their terraces, allowing for the minimal sunlight to photosynthesize the lowest branches, maximizing production on the whole tree. Spacing also allows air to flow through the entire tree, preventing mold and fungus from generating in Patzibir’s humid climate.
“Patzibir” is a Kaqchikel word meaning “where the Tzibir tree lives”, in reference to a native tree species in the region, which makes up part of Patzibir’s canopy. The cherry harvested at Patzibir is processed in the city of Antigua, at the wet mill of Los Volcanes Coffee, a processor, quality consultant, and exporter from whom Royal buys a wide variety of coffees. At Los Volcanes’ wet mill, cherry is delivered daily throughout harvest where it is sorted for uniformity, depulped, and fermented for up to 48 hours in a covered, temperature-controlled warehouse of ceramic tanks. Los Volcanes employs dedicated processing managers calibrated to a combination of temperature and smell to manage precise degrees of fermentation and maintain consistency across batches of varying volumes, temperatures, and humidity levels. After fermentation is complete, parchment is passed through a pressurized water siphon for cleaning and density grading, and then dried on the site’s large patio or in mechanical dryers. As batches of parchment finish drying throughout the harvest, the Los Volcanes team works with each individual lot in their cupping lab, blind-tasting and building harmonious lots by producer or region, for international sale.”
