Coffee of the Week: El Destello, Guatemala

This coming week, Highwire will be introducing (and featuring) a new coffee from Guatemala, a selection of Bourbon from a farm called El Destello.

El Destello is located out on the slopes of the Acatenango volcano, outside the municipality of San Miguel Dueñas, about half an hour west of the colonial city of Antigua.  The farm is owned by Luis Sagché and his parents, Daniel and Guaya.

Since 2002, the Sagche family has been cultivating Bourbon variety coffee (intercropped with avocado trees for shade) and focusing on producing high quality micro-lots. In addition to running the farm, Luis also works as the operations manager for Beneficio San Miguel, a specialty coffee milling and exporting business.  After he harvests his coffee at peak ripeness, Luis brings the coffee to Beneficio San Miguel to be depulped, fermented, washed, and then placed on raised beds in solar dryer for about two weeks.

While coffees from the Acatenango side of the valley are often lumped in with the rest of the region as a more generic, Antigua coffee, lots from Dueñas have their own nuanced characteristics, reflective of the specific micro-climate and orientation to the sun. 

We found this coffee to be incredibly sweet and accessible, with a red cherry-like acidity resolving into a cola-like sweetness.  At this degree of roast, we want to access some of the natural brightness of this coffee while bringing out chocolate notes in the finish.