Guatemala Atitlan Finca San Jose Del Lago Bourbon

This single estate coffee is also a rare bourbon only lot! Grown on the beautiful shores of Lake Atitlán, this offering is truly exceptional and quintessentially Guatemalan. Slightly complex with gentle acidity and a rich, buttery body. Look for notes of pear, concord grape, caramel and milk chocolate.

Arrival Date: August 17th, 2021

Acidity & Brightness: Slightly crisp, fairly sweet

Balance & Finish: Slightly complex, lingering finish

Body & Texture: Rich Body, buttery texture

Flavors: Pear, concord grape, caramel, milk chocolate

Grade: SHB, grown at 1550-2100 masl

Processing: Fully washed, sun dried on raised tables

Varieties: Bourbon

Roasting:  Start with a Full City (Medium) or just before second crack. Feel free to take it darker as this coffee takes dark roasting well but expect to lose some sparkling acidity and pick up more bitter notes like baker's chocolate. Lighter roasts will exhibit more bright acidity as well as more of the subtle flavors such as pear and grape. This coffee roasts very evenly!

Reminder: this coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing

Our Review: "Eduardo Cabrera, the fourth generation steward of his family’s property and lifelong coffee grower, could not be more exuberant about his sense of place. In his own words, 'coffee is family, tradition, memories, happiness, and a little suffering; but I wouldn’t trade anything for the adrenaline during the beginning of harvest, my olfaction that never tires of the smell of the coffee flower, and the landscape of the lake, the volcanoes, and the coffee trees!' Finca San José del Lago is on the southern shore of Guatemala’s breathtaking lake Atitlán, long 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, as Eduardo describes, numerous volcanoes. As one might imagine, 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 large estates such as San José del Lago. Processing on the farm takes place in the family’s historic wet mill. Cherry comes in from the farm, is depulped, sorted by density, and fermented in handmade tanks. After fermentation it is cleaned and then dried on a combination of raised screen beds and tarps. San José del Lago shares farm profits with employees and invests in their education, as well as donates portions of its land for community development projects which so far has included a medical clinic, a school, and a water tank for the town of Santiago Atitlán." - Royal Coffee

It's pretty rare enough to find such single estate coffees, much less ones sorted by variety and cultivar. Bourbon is perhaps the most famous coffee cultivar, having been imported from Yemen to the Americas hundreds of years ago. It's revered for it's consistent quality and has fathered other famous varieties including caturra and catuai. If you've ever wanted to try this variety at it's best, this coffee is for you! Slightly complex with gentle acidity and a rich, buttery texture, it's also the quintessential Guatemalan cup! Look for notes of ripe pear, concord grape, caramel and milk chocolate.