Description
Finca De Dios is really catching steam as one of the more premier Guatemalan coffee farms. The coffee keeps getting better and better each year.
Similar to Edwins farm, De Dios is a model of sustainability and treats its workers better than 99% of other farms in the region; providing education, infrastructure and medical care.
Almost forty years ago, a horse lover bought the farm with the intent of lodging his horses. A few years later, he was transferred because of work reasons. His daughter; Ellen Prentice, who remained in Guatemala, was left in charge of the farm. She started to tend the few hectares of coffee that the farm had and planted most of the farm with coffee, with the exception of the natural forests.
Six years ago, after inheriting her piece of the original farm, she proceeded to name it Finca de Dios, in memory of her father who had dedicated his land to God. Since then they have been building the necessary infrastructure, which her part did not have, including a wet mill. Even though small in comparison to most of the big coffee farms, we agree with the saying that says that some of the best things in life come in small packages.
They want to preserve the beauty of all of God’s creation and therefore have reserved more than one third of their land to the preservation of natural forests. In this way, they hope that birds and other wildlife can find a safe haven; a place to call home.
They believe that they have been blessed so that they can be a blessing to others. They strive to treat their workers with dignity and love so that they can work in an atmosphere of respect and peace. They try to accommodate workers with special needs to jobs they can best handle. They also try to teach those who work with them values and principles; especially the importance of working with excellence so that their clients can enjoy drinking an exceptional cup of coffee.
Tasting Notes:
A great clean micro lot from our friends at Finca De Dios. Awesome prep, one can tell a lot of care went into these beans. A great medium to as “dark as you want to go” bean type. Light roasts produce a lot of floral brightness and light fruit notes (almost reminiscent of a nice Costa) mixing with a subtle yet very sweet malty chocolaty note (can be a little more challenging to roast to a light roast) a great morning brew – darker roasts will produce more body similar to the Huehues – very clean non-roasty dark-roast beans – you get a lot of the sweet malty tones and very smooth even into 2nd crack – a very stand up bean at almost any roast level.
Roasting Notes:
Lighter roasts accent the fruitier brightness, deeper levels deliver smooth, rich chocolate malty flavors and a hint of smokiness – awesome and clean dark roast notes. Coffee will roast a little two-toned containing a couple different strains, if shooting for the lighter roasts slowing it down a bit will be helpful.
William Thesing –
I’m new at roasting, but have always been a coffee lover, and a highly skilled technical person. I love a good full bodied dark roast. About 90 seconds into 2nd crack is my sweet spot. This will be one of my goto beans. I love the flavor, and so have my guests. A nice discovery at the onset of an enjoyable hobby.
Chase Rawak (verified owner) –
Was surprised to watch it brew. Have glass pot. It was med in color but…the taste was chocolaty. Have never tasted the neuances in the discripton until now. I made it again with three scoops. It is perfect . It is truly a perfect coppa
Calvin (verified owner) –
Roasted this on the behmor just the p1 setting since I was learning the machine. It turned out amazing! Now Im getting more of these beans to play a bit on custom roast features of behmor.
BarryR (verified owner) –
Every year I roast a bunch of coffee for Holiday Gifts for my coworkers. I was looking for a “crowd-pleaser” and this sounded great.
I bought 11 lbs (on sale). It’s a hearty been and easy to roast. At a light City+ it was quite good but I think the ideal (especially for general consumption) was late City+ / Early FC. I went to FC+ for one roast and it was still good but losing nuance and getting too “roasty”.
It’s a sweet, very well-rounded coffee with some nice nuances (that I’m not good at putting into words).
This was a great choice. FYI: I roast on a Hottop).
JayF (verified owner) –
Roasted this bean on a Gene Café to full city roast. We let it rest for 4 days then ground some of it. My wife and I love it! It is very smooth low acid with medium plus body and nice finish. Definitely one of our favorites. A great alternative to our favorite Kona coffee at a fraction of the price!
frankstar6 (verified owner) –
These beans are great at any roast level though I prefer them in the light to medium range. They are rich in fruity acidity and body – the same if not better than last year’s crop!
Paul (Doctor Mongo) Garrison –
I got the Finca de Dios Fraijanes as a 1/2 # experiment and I am glad I did. I hand-roast into second crack for flavor and the first sip of this coffee was almost like the 68% cacao chocolate I was munching the previous night. VERY chocolatey at first, then full coffee flavor but also very smooth. I will be looking to get more of this variety. My preference has been running to Guatemalan beans lately, evolving from Ethiopian Yirgacheffes …