Guatemala - Familia Primavera

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Omni, suitable for filter and lighter/brighter style espresso

We’re roasting this coffee not to emphasise tart and bright acids (of which this coffee has a few to hand) but rather deep and dense caramel style sweetness - cooked fruit rather than fresh - without roast notes. Should work great across all brew methods and also stand up to a dash of milk, for those whom it pleases.

Best rested: 1-2 weeks

For filter: We recommend 60g/L and 94c water. 

For espresso: A ratio of 18g in to 40g out in 29-33s should be balanced with the right amount of acidity, but we recommend at least 2 weeks of rest for a better brewing experience.

We’re tasting:

Sweet and moreish aromas of ripe pear, fudge and toasted hazelnut. The cup has a buttery body with the aromas carrying through - pear, fudge and praline are the dominant notes. A milk chocolate sweetness with some hints of red apple and brioche as it cools. Very balanced and full.

Traceability:

The Story

We made a commitment to source easy drinkers as part of our green coffee buying strategy. By doing this, we can make larger volume commitments that dovetail in with higher impact sourcing, and have a relatively stable part of the offer compared to some of the wilder and shorter runs that make up our filter range. We look for a particular profile alongside the impact piece - a coffee that is more about sweetness than acidity, but still with some interesting notes, and that most importantly is very indulgent and body forward. 

We keep the idea of a batch brewer, a humble french press, a less than ideal home grinder/water setup in mind when both selecting the coffees and roasting them. The sort of coffee you can serve with a dash of milk and the experience is no less for it. We aren’t in the business of judging (or as some so eloquently put it - don’t yuck someone’s yum), especially when we know we’ve put the money towards a worthwhile community lot or higher value return, and that in putting it in your hands the value chain from producer to coffee drinker is complete.

We’ve returned to a component that briefly held the fort in Facility V2 - Familia Primavera. With this lot, our export/import partner Primavera builds a larger volume field blend from outturns produced from smallholder farmers in the San Antonio Huista municipality of Huehuetenango. These lots are either too small to represent reasonable microlot or bulk lot volume on their own, or not quite hitting the quality mark for a single origin release. 

Without a clear route to the speciality market, these lots may have been sold for high commercial prices. But by creating a larger field blend with careful selection of components, Primavera are able to craft an 84-85pt lot that commands a speciality price and value return to the producer, gains access to multiple markets that Primavera exports to, and maintains speciality level traceability. We found the classic HueHue sweetness - brioche like, and lots of caramels - alongside some acids at a lighter sample roast (like ripe red apple), alongside a comforting high quality nut-character that comes from the SHG style lots that contributed to the blend. 

When we experimented with a touch more developed sample roast (we typically roast very light to find the sort of coffees that suit our style), we knew we’d found both the one - the acids becoming more supportive than dominant, a very thick and comforting cup yet still holding interest and flavour structure, and crucially contrasting to the rest of the filter offer. All of this without having to apply too much of a firm hand with the roaster.

Our first Guat of the new crop season and likely to run until early autumn, this coffee is a great entry level cup for those testing the waters of speciality, but just as equally a great palate reset for those who are well down the rabbit-hole. If you, like us, sometimes need a break from zippy bright acids and crazy process character - then this coffee is for you. 

And if you happen to add a dash of your favourite milk or plant based alternative? Well - we won’t tell anyone if you won’t!