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About Guatemala Antigua Santo Domingo SHB

2022/23 first arrival is May 2023, new crop, in grainpro. We have offered this coffee for several years and have had very positive customer feedback.

Guatemala Santo Domingo coffee is made up of 15-20 small to medium sized producers in the Acatenango region, around the Acatenango and Agua volcanoes. All of these producers' farms are within a 25 mile range of Antigua and altogether they produce between 4 and 5 containers of green coffee per season. The farms are traditionally managed, with lots of shade.

The primary varieties of Arabica are Bourbon and Caturra. The cherry is collected by the miller/exporter and transported to their wet mill about 15-20 miles away in the town of Concepcion. There the wet process, pulping, fermentation, washing and drying is strictly supervised. All the coffee is dried on patios (dryers are there in case of bad weather and they are operated at very low temperatures). The dry mill, where the milling, cleaning, sorting and bagging for export takes place at the same location as the wetmill benficio. The same exporter has been buying coffee from this group of producers for over 25 years assuring consistency from crop to crop.

Producer: Santo Domingo, collective of 15-20 small farms
Region: Guatemala Antigua
Micro-region: Acatenango
Grade: Strictly Hard Bean (SHB)
Altitude: 1400+ meters
Processing: Traditional fully washed
Drying: Full sun as conditions permit
Varietals: Bourbon, Caturra
Other features: Shade grown

Cup Characteristics: Typically bright, zesty acidity but also offers a very smoothly textured bittersweet chocolate mouthfeel.

Roasting Notes: Strictly Hard Bean (SHB), high grown coffees are durable and can be roasted to light or dark. Lighter roasts will be characterized by pronounce acidity and delicate wine notes. The acidity is sufficient to withstand darker roasting, meaning the coffee, when dark, will not be flat tasting and will remain vibrant as a stand-alone or blend component.

Guatemala coffee facts:

Population (2006): 12.3 Million People
Coffee Production: 3.93 Million bags (60 kg)
Country bag capacity: 150 pounds
Domestic Consumption: 1.7 Million bags per year
Coffee Export: 3.8 Million Bags
Cultivated Area: 250,000 Hectares

Harvest:
September to April

Arabica Introduced: Coffee introduced by the Jesuits in the late 18th century and the coffee industry later developed by German immigrants in the mid 19th century.

Farms:
Approximately 65,000

Specialty Coffee Regions:
Antigua, Coban, Atitlan, Huehuetenango, Fraijanes, San Marcos

Botanical Varietals: Arabigo, Bourbon, Typica, Catura, Catuai, Catimur, Maragogype, RobustaArabigo, Bourbon, Typica, Catura, Catuai, Catimur, Maragogype, Robusta

Comments

This relatively small country produces some of the world's top coffees and offers a variety of coffee experiences. Each region has distinct taste profiles, each of which is enhanced, as always, by the care and attention brought by the farm in growing methodology.

There are more than 60,000 small coffee farms in Guatemala with over 30% of the population engaged in the coffee industry.