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Quarter Horse Coffee Club

Exclusive coffees for ✛ Plus plan subscribers

The exclusive coffee for

September

Blue Ayarza

Guatemala

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Coffee Profile

Varietals
Various

Process
Washed

Producer
Small holder farmers

Notes
Milk Chocolate, vanilla & green apple

More about the coffee, producer & region.

This washed lot was processed at the cherry mill in Ayarza, Santa Rosa. In Guatemala, coffee is traditionally processed individually by smallholder farmers. The team in Ayarza works with numerous farmers in the region, paying a premium for ripe cherries and processing it centrally to maintain strict standards throughout. Francisco Nájera is one of many local producers we work with at Ayarza cherry mill. Francisco was born in El Naranjo town in the Jutiapa department of Guatemala. He is 30 years old, married with two children and has been working in the coffee production business for around 15 years. Cultivating various small plots covering just under 1ha in total, Francisco is a small producer but a great entrepreneur, and has excelled in the coffee production business despite the adversity and constant threat of various coffee diseases. He also dedicates part of his time to developing coffee tree nursery services to sell saplings to other farmers in the region.

About the Region

The region of Ayarza is a special one, landmarked by the drastic landscape and cold blue water from the Laguna de Ayarza and Laguna Azul. Olam Guatemala always knew the region had massive potential to produce specialty coffee, but the cups that we found were usually solid but unsurprising. Two years ago, we rented a wet mill at 1,500 meters on an RFA certified farm. The quality coming from our washed coffee was much better than we expected. Next, we tried some naturals by buying cherry in Ayarza and transporting it to a region that had plenty of patios and good wind for drying. This has now been extended to include the honey process alongside experimental lots.

About the Process

At the Olam Cherry mill we have several options as to how we can process washed coffee. The beginning of the process is the same for all: strict picking and reception standards (picked ripe with less than 3% of greens), cherry floatation, de-pulping and screen sorting to remove any remaining under-ripes. From this point there are two paths that the coffee can take. Path 1: the coffee is fermented for 14 hours using a Fermaestro to determine the end of the fermentation, washed, dried on the patio and finished in a mechanical drier. Path 2: the coffee is sent straight to the mechanical washers (removing the mucilage), sent through a Centriflux to remove excess water, then dried at low temperatures mechanically. Natural factors along with the two paths above mean that coffee can exhibit subtly defend profiles. One profile tends to be more acidic, and the body is a touch lighter, this exhibits the winey character that cuppers often catch on fruity lots, so we call this ‘Vinoso’. The other profile is sweeter, and a little more body driven – this is the standard top washed profile for Santa Rosa, but sometimes we call it ‘classic’. We separate these accordingly and offer subtly different takes from this region of huge potential.