Colombia, Carlos Mario Guamanga Coffee Beans

Carlos Mario Guamanga was born in Cauca and started picking coffee cherries and learning about coffee around the age of 18. He spent a lot of time studying at SENA where he learned how to roast and cup coffee. This was the first step into becoming a great coffee producer. He and his wife Patricia now own El Recuerdo farm where they practice all kinds of unique processing methods. Their passion is to grow and process coffee as sustainably as possible. Their coffee farm is located in the Bruselas region of Pitalito, Huila, Colombia and stretches about 4 hectares. He grows a handful of different varietals, but this Caturra lot stuck out to us.

This Caturra was hand picked at peak ripeness and underwent a 40 hour cherry rest. This means the beans were fermented in cherry for 40 hours before being depulped and washed. Letting this coffee rest in the cherry helps the bean absorb some of the sugars from the coffee cherry which brings out a little more sweetness in the cup. When cupping this coffee for the first time we could taste a lot of green grape sweetness with nice coffee blossom florality. We are excited about this coffee for its clarity and terrior focused profile. A great representation of what a clean Huila coffee can taste like. 

This coffee has very delicate flavors so roasting it we needed to be quick and precise. We ended up finding that a faster roast profile brought out the green grape acidity as well as the coffee blossom floralities very nicely. Total roast time was 11:05 with a 12.9% development, finishing at 410º.