A deeper look into our Guatemala Santa Clara coffee and its long journey to find you
There’s no doubt that some of the finest coffees in the world are produced in Antigua, Guatemala. Finca Santa Clara produces primo Arabica coffees with amazing tasting notes. It is a coffee that combines smoky nuances with bright acidity and spicy undertones. The quality and flavour of Ricardo’s beans are unparalleled by any other in Central America. This is why we’ve chosen to roast Ricardo Zelaya beans for our Guatemala Santa Clara roast.
Here's what happens before the beans come to us for roasting:
Selection of the Cherries
The cherries must be selected by hand which ensures their high-quality coffee.
“We are very lucky that our team of pickers is almost the same every year, which results in a very even selection of cherries and allows our quality to be consistent.” - Ricardo Zeleya
Wet Mills
Arabica coffees with amazing tasting notes. The carefully selected cherries are processed in a traditional wet mill that removes the cherry from the coffee bean through processes called de-pulping and fermenting.
Drying
Once the beans have been rinsed off, they dry on concrete patios.
Alternatively, the beans are dried on "African beds" inside greenhouses. The greenhouses allow them to accomplish processing methods such as Naturals and Honeys and increase the overall quality of the drying process.
Dry Mills
The dry mill sorts the beans by weight, size, density and colour until the perfect, clean preparation is achieved. The beans are then rested in parchment and polished before they leave the finca.
Selling and Exporting
“Every year, we are honored when our buyers come visit us in Guatemala.” - Ricardo Zeleya
Once the lots are ready for cupping we get to travel down tour the farms and visit Ricardo and family. This is when the fun begins and we join in on cupping sessions and choose the lots we like the best. After the selections are made, they prepare our coffees for export. Back home in Vancouver, we patiently await the new crop arrival!
The first thing we do is survey the green beans and start experimenting with roasts. Sometimes we would’ve brought some samples back from visiting a farm and already have an idea of how we want to roast, but we still tweak and perfect until we get the exact flavours we’re going for. Then we take our roasted beans and get them to our shops and stores where they wait eagerly to be used in a great cup of coffee.
