Guatemalan Antigua – Concepcion Buena Vista – Anaerobic Natural AnaCafe 14

Although we do not know the Solano family directly, this coffee is brought to us by our direct relationship with Finca Vista Hermosa, who leads Onyx Coffee. Edwin has been working with some of the best names in Guatemala (his farming circle) to create some very high end, more new wave offerings. With his help, we have found some unique gems we are proud to offer. This one is a super clean, complex and fruit forward cup. An awesome example of an anaerobic natural at a very fair price.

Concepcion Buena Vista is a farm that has been in the Solano family for more than 150 years. They are on 4 generations that have been working with coffee and improving not only the coffee quality, but also the life quality of all their community at the farm. Bernardo Solano, the 3rd generation of the farm along with David and Eddy, the 4th generation, work together to create amazing coffees and adapt to new trends.

This lot is from a traditional varietal Anacafé 14, but with some new processing. This coffee was macerated inside a stainless-steel tank into an Anaerobic maceration for 72 hours, controlling pressure, temperature and pH during the whole maceration time. Then, this coffee was sun dried on raised beds for 18 days until reach the ideal humidity.

David is also a well know barista in Guatemala, he is the 3 consecutive times National Barista Champion and has competed in 2018 World Barista Champion in Amsterdam and in 2019 World Barista Champion in Boston getting the 4th best espresso during 2019 WBC with coffee from Concepcion Buena Sight.

Tasting Notes:
Best served in the light to medium roast ballpark. Sweet, clean, delicate and complex. A bit citric/floral acidity upfront while super fresh, mellows 4-5 days after roasting. Decent sweeter red fruit tones accentuated by the aromatics. After some resting, the fruitiness turns a bit more grape-skin like, which we have found unique to the anaerobic coffees. A balanced cup at the light to medium roasts, a pleasant malty tone to contrast the fruit and acidity. As the cup cools one will notice a little more oaky ferment tone within the malt like profile. Strong medium to dark roasts bring out the Guatemalan roots of the cup, very malty and complex, semi-sweet and much more robust. A slight touch of fruitiness at the fuller roasts but comes off more like a barrel aged oaky tone, which does compliment the malty cup profile.

Roasting Notes:
An easier coffee to roast but will be higher chaff. Beautiful preparation and anaerobic processing leads to even roasting beans. Unique for a cool natural, some naturals roast very uneven. Although we liked this coffee best drank a little sooner, day 1-3 after roasting, a bit more traditional red fruit tones, it gains a ton of complexity and shows more of its anaerobic processing after a 4-5 day setup.