Familia Villtoro Guatemala

Guatemala · Huehuetenango · Washed

Three brothers, Aurelio, Pedro and Florencio Villatoro, farm side by side in the Hoja Blanca valley of Huehuetenango. Their land touches, but each brother runs his own farm his own way. They prune, pick and process separately, each at his own wet mill and drying patio. This coffee brings all three farms together.

That's where the next generation comes in. After harvest, every lot goes to the family's lab in downtown Huehuetenango, where the brothers' sons, Jenner, Rodin, Denis and Mikel, cup and grade each one. A lot only gets the Villatoro name if it passes.

The coffee is Bourbon and Caturra, grown in the cool Hoja Blanca hills high enough to earn SHB (Strictly Hard Bean), the highest altitude grade in Guatemala. Cooler, higher farms ripen cherries more slowly, which builds denser beans and more sweetness.

In the cup, chocolate leads. Orange cream adds brightness, vanilla and grape add more sweetness, and it finishes creamy with a cake-like sweetness.

The result is creamy, sweet and easy to like, with more going on than you'd expect from a crowd-pleaser.

One family, three farms, one standard.

On resting: Our coffees are roasted to order. For the first couple of weeks after roasting, the coffee keeps releasing CO2. As it settles, harsh or roasty edges soften and the sweetness comes forward. We recommend resting this one at least 14 days after the roast date. Dense, high-grown lots like this often hit their peak between 3 and 6 weeks.