Guatemala Buena Vista Espresso
Guatemala Buena Vista Espresso Roast
Historically, we probably buy just a little too much Guatemalan coffee to be good for us. It is a combination of the coffee quality being so good and also the synergy of human scale and small farms. Buena Vista is a relatively new farm to us at James Gourmet, as we have only been buying it since 2018. This year we are roasting separately as Filter and for Espresso as sometimes we can just get that bit more out of the coffee this way.
Top Trumps
Farmer: Andres Godolfredo Cano and Maira Lopez
Farm: Buena Vista
Region: Huehuetenango
Varietal: Caturra
Process: Washed. (48 hours in fermentation tanks) and sundried on patios.
Elevation: 1650 Meters above sea level. (some 600 meters above the top of Ben Nevis if that helps?)
Rain Fall: 1.7 meters per annum, thankfully not all in one go.
Roast: Trad Espresso: Similar internal colour to Formula 6 is our target.
Brew recipes:
Dry Weight: 17g| Wet: 34-60g| Time: 25-35 seconds|
I have really been enjoying this coffee in espresso over the last few days. My recipe above is broad and here is why: If you have noticed that I tend to keep my shots for milk-based drinks shorter, as I prefer what happens in milk. In short more!
In Milk: This works in milk up to and beyond 9oz. In a 9oz cup, This is chocolatey, malty with plenty of lactic sugars and rich. If you like non-dairy, this is a good candidate for oat milk. In a 6oz milk-based, this is what I think a Flat white was/ is supposed to be. Dark, dry chocolate and rich, but of course creamy, if you have chosen good milk.
Espresso; The foundation and of course the life and soul of what flows from an espresso machine. My usual go-to is 17g of dry in/45g out wet. We found that the shorter 45g was good. Plummy acidity again and a bright limey acidity. This is literally short and sweet. There was no lingering, no real depth. This meant that we had to look for more. More “What-if’s?”. Just extending the shot to 60g somehow reduced the chocolate factor and increased the fruit. More of the plummy acidity and a citric finish. We were at the end of positive extraction at 35 seconds. We were on the verge of over-extraction, but it was still tasty and a nice drink. Let us know your brew recipe with this one, we (I) would be really interested to see if you are doing something different.
Farm Info
“My farm is located at the top of the mountains of San Antonio Huista, a place which takes 2 hours and 40 minutes walking to reach.” The clouds cover the place to such an extent that there are only 5 hours of sunlight per day at times. During the harvest season, Andres and Maira stay in a cabin higher up, and from there you see a spectacular view of the whole town of San Antonio Huista. This explains the name of this farm, ‘Good View”.
Andres used to live in San Martin Concepción Huista, working as a vegetable producer. However, he always had the idea of producing coffee in his mind. About ten years ago, he decided to sell his land and everything he had and move to a more suitable region for coffee production. When he bought his farm it was abandoned, but he directly started to change and modify it in the way he liked. A dream has come true he says. “Coffee is my passion and is part of my life, and I do not mind investing in it so to see my plants healthy. I want to continue working in coffee and hope to inspire the next generation”.
